As news broke out about Kai's unexpected military enlistment, many fans questioned South Korea's military service laws. To clarify the issue, a representative from the Military Manpower Administration spoke to Star News on May 4, stating that those who receive a military service summon letter can request to postpone their enlistment up to five times within two years. However, the reason for postponement labeled as "miscellaneous" can only be used twice. 

Unfortunately, the representative explained that Kai has already exhausted all five postponement requests, leaving him with no other choice but to enlist on May 11, as indicated by his summon letter, if he intends to follow the law. While it remains unclear if the Military Manpower Administration's explanation aligns with SM Entertainment's earlier statement attributing Kai's enlistment to "recent changes in military service laws," the agency announced on May 3 that the K-pop star would serve as a public service worker.

After the statement from the Military Manpower Administration, netizens are speculating that SM Entertainment had poorly handled the situation regarding Kai's enlistment.

Netizens commented, "If he used up all five postponements, then it's SM Entertainment that didn't do the work properly," "SM has a bigger fault," "SM didn't handle the situation properly, now the artist and fans are going to suffer," "EXO should have made a comeback in April," "This is so disappointing for fans," "Why did SM make this mistake?" "So SM didn't calculate the dates right?" "SM was spoiling that EXO was going to make a comeback as a whole group this year but now it's ruined," and "It's just entirely SM's fault."