Within the past few weeks, the K-pop industry has gone through so many scandals and shocks that fans have become emotional wrecks. There are four big K-pop companies: JYP, Hybe, SM, and YG. Of these four, three have gone through sudden business-altering changes that have left the rest of the world reeling. It has been so brutal and random that fans are going as far as to develop theories and conspiracies over the matter! Some believe these are cover-ups for some larger underground scandal, while others simply mourn what used to be of the K-pop industry.
JYP Entertainment is directed by Jin Young Park, famously known as JYP, an iconic Korean singer-songwriter who founded the company in 1997. Since then, he has been the director of countless K-pop groups that have taken the world by storm, such as TWICE, Stray Kids, ITZY, and NMIXX. These groups are among the best-selling of all time and, as such, have won countless awards. So when he suddenly announced his resignation as internal director on March 10th, everyone was caught off guard. It felt like such a sudden loss of someone who had been so unmistakably recognizable in the K-pop industry for decades that, within hours, JYP’s resignation was one of the top trending searches on social media and Google. Sophomore Ellie Kim, a K-pop obsessed fan, commented, “It was so shocking, especially because he has been working in the industry for so long. I could barely believe it because I thought he’d be the head of the company for so much longer.”
This was already sending the fans into a bit of an uproar. Still, it was not necessarily suspicious yet because, according to Ellie, there were rumors that JYP was simply stepping down to focus on coaching future idols instead of handling the whole company. Sometimes, events just come out of the blue like this, and the world simply moves on. However, things took a strange turn when one of Hybe’s subsidiary companies, BELIFT LAB, which handled the K-pop group Enhypen, suddenly announced that the member Heeseung Lee was leaving the group to become a soloist. Now? The world kind of felt like a globe slowly tilting off the edge of a mantel, crashing to its mildly confusing death.
This announcement launched on March 10th, 2026. What I am about to tell you next is the complete, honest, unexaggerated, non-hyperbolic truth: complete pandemonium. Uproar. Insanity. Engenes, or Enhypen fans, were losing their minds. Not only because a key member was leaving one of their favorite musical groups, but also because it simply made no sense. Within hours, Engenes were developing an array of conspiracies based on suspicious things they dug up on the Internet.
Some fans were hooked on how Heeseung’s handwritten goodbye letter had drastically different handwriting than another letter he had written for Engenes a year prior. There is also the unproven claim that he subtly bolded certain characters in his letter to spell out “only the company is happy.” On top of this, fans realized that Heeseung had been expressing excitement about the upcoming “BLOOD SAGA” World Tour, set to kick off in Seoul in May 2026, days before he announced leaving the group. To them, it made zero sense as to why he would choose to leave, especially now of all times in the midst of Enhypen’s busy schedule.
Freshman Chloe Kim, an Engene herself, has developed her own opinions on this: “Well, I was devastated when Heeseung said he was leaving Enhypen. I never thought any member would leave because of how successful and happy they all seemed. Plus, I heard a lot of rumors about how the company was forcing him to leave, because Hybe has done that in the past. Like, they tried to force RM of BTS to leave the group and become a soloist. That might have been a TV prank, but they have definitely tried to at one point.”
Ellie has similar ideas, saying that she had even heard that “Heeseung was found crying in the company hallways right after the announcement came out, according to some employees. Apparently, the other Enhypen members didn’t even know Heeseung had ‘left’ until afterwards. And the day before he did, on a live stream, Heeseung told Engenes that he’d ‘never leave you guys.’ It’s just so suspicious.”
This skeptical sentiment seems to be the conclusion among most Engenes, as fans worldwide have gathered together to protest Heeseung’s leave and beg for him back. There were multiple advertisement trucks rented by Engenes to park in front of the Hybe HQ, demanding Heeseung be returned to his original group. These actions seem drastic for an artist who supposedly left on his own terms to pursue a solo career, but fans are sure that Heeseung did not leave on his own free will. If the whole event were not so suspicious, Ellie, Chloe, and even I agree that fans would be much more understanding and supportive of Heeseung leaving.
To me, Heeseung’s exit seems confusing at best and shady at worst. Considering all of the evidence that suggests he never wanted to leave Enhypen in the first place, on top of his supposedly being surprised despite Hybe claiming they had been deliberating this with Heeseung for more than two months prior, I am seriously picking up on something fishy.
Taking it one step further, Ellie brings up an interesting point by saying that both of these major events in the industry happening in the span of a week are “way too short to be a coincidence. There must be something more major going on that is trying to be covered up by Heeseung and JYP both stepping down. Like, I heard a rumor that the president of Hybe has been doing some illegal stuff, like how he was investigated for stock fraud back in September of 2025. Maybe he’s trying to kick up some more commotion around his groups rather than have the news focus on him?” While this may seem like a wild suggestion, this is actually another popular conspiracy among Engenes. There have been thousands of posts by Engenes on sites like Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and more, expressing how suspicious they are of Hybe’s president being behind all of this.
And if you thought it couldn’t get any worse… it does.
The iconic group Katseye, under the JYP label, recently had one of its members, Manon, go on a hiatus for her mental well-being. However, Eyekons—the name for the Katseye fanbase—panicked after realizing Manon had removed the title of Katseye from her Instagram account’s bio, which is a place to add a few notes describing yourself. Based on this, Eyekons are fearing the worst-case scenario: Manon leaving Katseye.
But, somehow, that’s not all. The boy band NCT under SM Entertainment’s management has 24 members divided into 7 different subunits: NCT U, NCT 127, NCT Dream, WayV, NCT DoJaeJung, NCT Wish, and NCT JNJM. Although it is a pretty complicated concept and not one I even fully understand, NCT fans, otherwise known as NCTzens, were thrown off guard after the member Ten announced he was leaving SM Entertainment after his contract expired on April 1st. To their relief, he announced he was staying as a member of NCT, but this decision has brought a wave of confusion with it. Some fans wonder why he is leaving the label, while others wonder why he is choosing to stay with NCT even after deciding not to renew his contract as an idol. NCTzens express an underlying suspicion that he wants to get away from SM Entertainment for some unknown reason, causing yet another shockwave in the K-pop industry.
Thankfully, that is it for now. And I’m saying that lightly, considering a major K-pop figurehead has stepped down from his multi-million dollar entertainment company, one member left their group under suspicious conditions, another group’s member may be leaving their group, and a third group’s member is leaving but also not. What a way to put it! But who knows what else might happen? Within the first 4 months of 2026, there have already been more dramatic plot twists in the K-pop industry than ever before, sending fans into a constant state of hysteria online. At this rate, I’d be willing to bet that even more unbelievable events will continue popping up for the rest of the year, although I’d be concerned for fans’ sanity if that were to actually happen. And while the fans can make as many conspiracies as they would like, only time will tell whether or not any of them are true.
