Today, March 10th 2026, BELIFT released a statement on Weverse and stating that Lee Heeseung will be parting from the K-pop group, ENHYPEN.

“Hello, this is BELIFT LAB.
We would like to express our gratitude toward ENGENE for their unwavering support for ENHYPEN and provide information on ENHYPEN’s future activities.
BELIFT LAB has given much thought and consideration into ENHYPEN’s future direction and goals. Through in-depth discussions with each of the members about the future they envision and the direction of the team, it became clear that HEESEUNG has his own distinct musical vision and we have decided to respect it.
As such, HEESEUNG will be parting ways with ENHYPEN, and ENHYPEN will continue official activities henceforth as a group of six members.
It’s difficult to relay the whole process through a short notice, but this decision comes after extensive deliberation. We understand that this news is a lot to process and may be received with mixed reactions. Nevertheless, we hope you understand that this decision was made for the future of ENHYPEN and HEESEUNG.
ENHYPEN remains committed to sharing energetic performances with ENGENE. HEESEUNG will be preparing a solo album as an artist under BELIFT LAB.
We ask for ENGENE’s continued love and support for ENHYPEN and HEESEUNG as they start a new chapter of their journey.
Thank you.”

This was released at 16:00 KST and brought out frustration and sadness from ENGENE’s (fans) such as myself.

9 minutes later at 16:09 KST, Heeseung released his own statement on Weverse. In short, he showed his gratitude towards the fans and said that he is preparing hard to see the fans as soon as possible.

Fans were bamboozled at this and adamant that it was not a planned decision as their merchandise drop was unexpectedly postponed. Why would they postpone a merch drop if this was a planned decision? Even if it was planned, the timing of it is strange because there are still events they are/ were scheduled to attend as a 7-member group.

Not even 5 hours later, petitions were created for BELIFT to reconsider their decision and have Heeseung pursue a solo career without having to leave the group. Choi Yeonjun was mentioned multiple times under fan-posts, as he was able to pursue a solo career whilst staying in the K-pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT). However, it is no secret that the K-pop industry has been accused of overworking it’s workers, so it may have also been a work-life balance decision. For example one of the petitions was made on change.org which you can view here – it currently has over 200,000 (time is 17:00 GMT).

Moreover, fans have made their own theories on his “distinct musical vision”, that it may be the mixtape he was excited to show ENGENE’s which he expressed in his EN-loG posted on Youtube in 2025. He also dropped a ringtone for fans and showed the behind-the-scenes of it, which then had people commenting “drop the solo album!”. The contrast in attitudes from those comments till then and now are drastic – “I feel slightly guilty because I was always saying like when’s he gonna drop that album he needs to drop it now.. and now he finally is but as a soloist, it just doesn’t feel right.” – @/_.rihvnna on Instagram.

To lighten the mood, international ENGENE’s are urging K-ENGENE’s to send trucks in protest to HYBE for BELIFT to listen to fan’s concerns or at least give them more of an explanation on X – you can find a post uploaded by ENHYPEN HEESEUNG GLOBAL about fundraising for a truck with 4 payment options. For context, in December 2024, some immature fans sent a truck to Yang Jungwon with cruel text on it from merely dating rumours with Winter from AESPA. So the somewhat “joke” is that they should “make themselves useful”.

A post by @/enhypen_members on X was uploaded at 00:41 KST, saying that we should respect the decision made, they shall continue to grow and showed gratitude for ENGENE’s support. This is seen as almost a confirmation to fans that there really is No Way Back.

UPDATE 1 – PROTESTS:

Around 1:30 KST on 11th March 2026, the petition on change.org (linked previously) has reached over one million signatures. This is all under 48 hours – this really shows the intensity of Heeseung’s fans love for him. Moreover, there are protests outside of the HYBE building and nearby in Seoul, Korea, with the common phrase “ENHYPEN is 7”.

Fans hope to be taken seriously as this has clearly affected a large scale of people; they are determined to not give up as they have stated that even though it took over a year, Mark Lee from NCT Dream returned back to the group, they should not give up. ENGENE’s will be by Heeseung’s side, No Doubt.

Fans on X have also posted about an alleged flight cancellation for the now ex-member whilst trying to gain insider intel which you can find on @/bvnnyhoon’s page here.

UPDATE 2 – IS HE REALLY GONE?

Jake and Jay (the now two oldest members of ENHYPEN) appeared on The Morning Show (Australian) via video call on March 12th 2026 at roughly 11:00 AEDT. They were asked about how they do not have fixed choreo formations and Jake responded with “there’s been a change in choreo formations” which left fans Drunk-Dazed at the subtle confirmation from the members that Heeseung is really gone and will not be making an appearance at the Hello, Melbourne festival.

Later on, at 18:00 KST on March 12th 2026, this was posted by Applewood Korea, a global entertainment company on X:

This has given fans even less hope on a return from the ex-member.

UPDATE 3 – EN-O’CLOCK CANCELLATION:

BELIFT has released another statement on X, on March 11th 2026 at 21:00 KST, regarding ENHYPEN’s variety show “EN-O’CLOCK” being cancelled.

Since the Tuesday of this week where fans were hit with news of Heeseung’s departure, they were waiting to see whether the weekly show would have any major cuts of Heeseung’s screen time. Instead, they were distraught to hear that they have decided to cancel the show entirely. ENHYPEN released a teaser for this new series of EN-O’CLOCK on YouTube you can see here.

Fans are left wondering whether we will ever see that content they had teased in this video. As seen above, BELIFT said “We will return with even better content in April.”.

“The way that the company’s acting it’s as if he was never apart of the group and that’s not fair.”

“ENGENE’s are gonna fight for Heeseung’s right.”

ENGENE’s are curious to what this “better content” is. Why are they trying to erase him? Surely, if there was nothing serious beneath all this, there’s nothing wrong with him being seen with his former bandmates – he’s still under the same company. Until then, fans remain caught in a lingering Fever of questions.

UPDATE 4 – SUBTLE SIGNS?

I am now at the fourth update and I would like to apologise that most of my updates involve claims made and evidence are from X and Instagram, however I believe it is still credible as it encapsulates the chaos that fans are going through.

ENHYPEN are Prada ambassadors, so they attend their events as they would. Yesterday, on 12th March 2026, Jungwon was seen raising in hands into the connect symbol. This gesture was shown to fans outside the events perimeter through a window.

Why is this so significant? It’s just their introductory gesture? As a matter of fact, Heeseung created this gesture back in 2020 when they had debuted as a 7-member group. Fans are taking this as a sign of hope – a moment that almost seems to Foreshadow the group speaking up despite the risks.

UPDATE 5- HEESEUNG STILL APART OF PROMOTIONS:

If you’ve made it up to here, you must not be surprised that my next piece of evidence comes from someone’s post on X.

From March 13th to March 18th 2026, there is a final YZY fancall event purchase period for ENHYPEN’s album The Sin: Vanish which includes the 6 ENHYPEN members as an option and Heeseung. However Heeseung is scheduled to have it as a different date from the other members, on the 6th April, instead of the 26th March.

I have translated the following media from Chinese to English via Google Lens so it is easier to understand by reading from the post than my regurgitation.

Fans are furious at BELIFT for this as it is contradictory to their statement of Heeseung leaving:

Having him do it on a different date is only giving the message that although he isn’t a part of ENHYPEN anymore, the company is still going to make as much use of him as possible after their last comeback — treating him like a product, something that should be Not For Sale.

UPDATE 6 – ENHYPEN IN AUSTRALIA:

If you remember from my second update, I wrote about APPLEWOOD’s statement saying that Heeseung will not be performing in Australia with the rest of the ENHYPEN members for their first visit as a group. Today, 14th March 2026, the concert happened as a 6-member group, as you could imagine. However, what really caused fans to be angry, was the picture displayed on the screen before they had started to perform.

For them to photoshop an image onto a Melbourne-style background and cut out one of the members is just hurtful for the group and its fans; for many, it feels like a Forget Me Not moment, almost as if they’re trying to erase his existence.

UPDATE 7 – INTERNATIONAL REACH:

K-pop fans around the world have protested so hard that this news is reaching internationally. It has hit Dutch news NOS, ads in Monterrey, Mexico (Figure X), change.org UK’s Instagram, NYC Times Square Billboard (Figure X²)and much more areas, whether that’s the news, adverts, pop-ups or protests. It is clear this issue needs to be addressed properly through BELIFT themselves, instead of having their words regurgitated through news outlets with no proof of their statements. The One and Only media that can be trusted right now is BELIFT’s official statements, usually done through Weverse.

UPDATE 8 – FABRICATION?

Today, March 15th 2026, The Korea Herald released an article claiming that BELIFT has re-affirmed that Heeseung will not be returning to ENHYPEN. Fans on all social media platforms are criticising this article for many reasons. One being that BELIFT themselves have not released this statement, so how are we to trust this article? Also, the article says and I quote: “According to the agency, Enhypen’s schedule remains extremely demanding throughout the year, making it difficult for members to develop independent musical projects while maintaining full group activities.” This is almost a confession to how the company overworks their artists; as their company, they are in-control of their schedule and can change this, if they really wanted to. As I have said at the beginning, other people have been able to do solo careers whilst staying under their company (e.g. Choi Yeonjun in TXT) – so how is this any different? The backlash they are facing for removing Heeseung, without a goodbye or any sort of actual reasoning, is almost Karma.

– cover image credits: @/tazeeennn on instagram –