EXO’s Suho Asked Fans To Stop Sending Letters To His Military Base — These Cartoons Tell Us Why

His squad-mate illustrated what happened behind-the-scenes.

Back in May 14, 2020, EXO‘s Suho enlisted as the third EXO member to complete his military duty. By May 19, EXO-Ls were pleasantly surprised with Suho’s adorable soldier-in-the-making pictures from the base.

EXO’s Suho (center) with his teammates

Then, by May 28, 2020, EXO-Ls received a handwritten letter from Suho, shared on EXO’s official fan site. The letter read:

Dear EXO-Ls.

Hi EXO-Ls, this is EXO’s leader Suho. I am also the 23rd regiment, 6th company, 2nd platoon, 1st squad’s trainee number 65 Kim Jun Myeon. How have you all been? I’m holding up well. I’m training hard and eating a lot better than usual! (I’m not being picky. The food is well prepared and delicious!) I’m sleeping well too, nothing is bothering me. I think I’m really cut out for the routine lifestyle. I’m also putting my EXO leader skills to use and acting as the trainee leader of the 6th company. My 159 fellow trainees and I are having good days here. I bet EXO-Ls are surprised by this letter. I decided to write today because I wanted to thank you guys and also ask you guys for something. As you know, It was my birthday on May 22. Everyone here celebrated it with me. I also received a lot of online and offline letters from EXO-Ls too. Thanks for congratulating me on my birthday and updating me on how the other EXO members are doing and whatnot. I knew I had a lot of fans… but I didn’t know I had so many girlfriends and wives. You guys had a lot of fun filling out the “Relationship” part of the form. Haha. You guys are so cute and so fierce. Anyway, I’ve been made well aware of how much you guys love me. It’s keeping me energetic and happy throughout the training period here. So don’t worry!

— Suho

Later in the letter, Suho gently asked EXO-Ls to refrain from sending him letters online.

While I’m extremely grateful for the love and support I receive from EXO-Ls, what I wanted to tell you guys today is that there is simply not enough time for me to read, sort, and organize all the letters during my break times here at the base. (Actually, there might be a lot of time — but there are too many letters. EXO-Ls, you guys are truly amazing!) So I wanted to ask you all to please refrain from sending the letters to the base. You can always leave comments on my Instagram or send the letters to SM Entertainment office. I wanted to tell you that I promise I’ll get to every single one of them once I’m done with the training period. I know this isn’t what EXO-Ls want to hear… but I assure you, EXO’s Suho really knows how EXO-Ls feel best. So don’t worry! Thank you Korean and international fans for sending love all the way here to Nonsan. I miss you all so much as I sit here writing this. I love you all tremendously. We are far apart but we are together always. We are one, EXO. Let’s love! PS. Please listen to Baekhyun’s ‘Candy’ and show him love. From Suho…

— Suho

While EXO-Ls assumed that it is because of the sheer amount of letters as he explained, this series of cartoons shared on a Korean forum wetrend revealed the details from the inside. Claimed to be created by a training squad-mate who enlisted with Suho, these cartoons illustrated what exactly led up to this letter:

According to this squad-mate, Suho wrote the letter — after he spoke with the platoon’s captains who found out that the trainees on printing duty are pulling all-nighters trying to print out all of EXO-Ls’ letters.

The squad-mate illustrated that Suho put a lot of thought into the letter, as he didn’t want to discourage EXO-Ls.

And EXO-Ls couldn’t be any more grateful for these behind-the-scenes!

Suho at the military base

Following the four weeks of training, Suho is going to complete his military duty as public service worker. He will be discharged on February 13, 2022.

Source: WeTrend, Insight and THEQOO

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