EXO's Kai and Sehun Debut as a Unit in December, SM Confirms
Kai and Sehun of EXO will release a mini album in December as a new EXO unit, SM Entertainment confirmed Monday. The agency has not named the unit, set a release date or revealed a title track.
Newsen reported the plan on Nov. 2, and SM confirmed it the same day. In SM's statement, as translated by Soompi, the label calls it the pair's first mini album as a new unit of EXO and asks fans for continued interest and anticipation. Nothing else about the project has been made public.
That leaves most of the basics open. SM has not said whether the pair will carry a concept or visual teasers, whether they will promote on music shows, or how many tracks the mini album will hold. Those details would normally arrive through SM's official channels in the weeks before a release, and none has appeared yet. For now, the confirmation itself is the news: a second EXO unit is coming, and it will be built around two members who have spent years on separate solo and group tracks.
The two have shared stages before. Sehun appeared as a surprise guest at Kai's solo concert last year, and in January they reunited on "Jeongwating," a spin-off of the web variety show "Jeongwaja" that Kai hosts. Both are also set to appear as travel partners on ENA's variety show "World Dice Tour 4," alongside actor Chun Woo-hee, Soompi reported earlier. Both were born in 1994.
The release means something different for each member. It will be Kai's first subunit, the Korea Herald reported. Sehun has done this before: he teamed up with Chanyeol as EXO-SC and released two albums, one in 2019 and one in 2020. Kai has put out four solo EPs, and Sehun released his first Chinese-language single in July. EXO has other subunit precedent too. Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin debuted as EXO-CBX with the EP "Hey Mama!" in October 2016, according to the JoongAng Daily.
The unit arrives in a busy year for the group, which debuted under SM in 2012. EXO opened its 14th anniversary year with its eighth studio album, "Reverxe," in January. The album sold more than a million copies and swept music charts and TV music shows, the Korea Herald reported. The group then toured 14 regions across Asia with 27 shows from April to July.
SM has not said what day in December the album arrives. The first EXO date on the calendar is closer: three encore concerts in Seoul on Nov. 6-8. They land just days after the unit news, so the group's fans will have a live setting in which to react. The sources reviewed do not confirm the venue or which members will perform.
