Rumor has it that EXO’s Baekhyun is leaving his agency SM Entertainment and taking his bandmates Chen and Xiumin with him. Long story short — he’s not leaving, at least not until January 2024.

Baekhyun, Chen and Xiumin have butted heads with SM Entertainment since earlier in the year when they claimed they were mistreated by the agency and demanded their contracts be nulled by the court.

The brawl took full shape when the three members, also members of an EXO subunit named EXO-CBX, filed for a court injunction and announced it to the local press. SM Entertainment argued that an outside party was trying to sweet-talk the members into joining it instead while the members claimed that the agency had been abusing its power over the artists.

Three weeks went by with both parties playing the blame game, but they managed to come to an agreement in late June after fixing certain clauses in the contract for the three members.

So why this news now, over a month after everyone shook hands and smiled for the camera?

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]