jungwon just went live to tell engene to stop doing the ot7 fanchants at concerts. that enhypen is 6 members now, and it's not nice to see engene fighting amongst themselves because of it. that it disturbs their performances. and quite frankly that ot7 engenes aren't proper fans...
honestly this whole situation is just frustrating.
im frustrated because i've spent 6 years loving heeseung, loving the members, and loving enhypen. i've spent 6 years in my room practising the ot7 fanchants, just waiting for my moment when i can finally see them in concert where i can live out my dreams. for 6 years they've been a connection i've grown up with; an escape from the hardest times in my life. seeing them happy on screen made me happy at my desk in my room. seeing them love each other - and love engene - helped me grow to love myself. enhypen has been the light of my life for 6 whole years. i believe it is unfair to say i am less of an engene because of my emotional attachment to ot7 enhypen, honest to god.
and then one random tuesday, everything changed. one weverse notice, one "handwritten" letter, and nothing more. the only explanation being that heeseung wanted to go solo - when we all knew this, but we also know that idols very commonly do both. also, the timing of the notice seemed so out of the blue. in the middle of a heavily packed schedule, just after a comeback, and right before they had a gig booked at a music festival in australia. then all of a sudden, we were to go business as usual and just simply pretend heeseung never existed in enhypen.
and to me, that is the root of the problem. you cannot possibly expect a whole fandom to adapt overnight and accept that. you cannot possibly expect to just erase heeseung from enhypen's history. to scrap all your pre-recorded content with him in it (en-o'clock's hiatus, which shouldn't have been recorded if hee's leaving was planned, imo), to rejig dance formations and line distributions 4 days before a music festival performance, etc, and think everything will be sunshine and rainbows.
additionally, be:lift is so messy. listerine + dunkin ads still have heeseung in them, heeseung was just ("accidentally") included in some trailer/promotion for enha's upcoming album, and heeseung was included in enhypen fancalls after he left. yet none of the members can even say his name, the fanchants were updated to be ot6, and heeseung got his own weverse and instagram accounts. at this point heeseung's enhypen contract should say "sometimes", because i don't even think be:lift knows if heeseung is an enhypen member or not.
no matter how much the members (okay jaywon so far) and the agency can tell people that enhypen is 6 now, and to stop trying to boycott or raise awareness by spreading tags on twitter, you just can't control these things. i understand their point of view, i really do. i understand how annoying it would get to only hear 'enhypen is 7', 'where's heeseung', 'touch your hair if you miss heeseung', etc, in your comments section. especially if you really are trying to grieve and be sad over the fact that someone you had described as "family" in the past has left to pursue his own path. but addressing the situation only fosters more frequent discourse about it, especially in a fandom that is so emotionally invested in ot7 enhypen - and is definitely going to start analysing everything; hello look what i'm doing now lol.
the thing is none of this fighting would have happened if be:lift + enha had explained everything to us from the beginning. i saw a comment about this on tiktok and i agree so heavily. if they went live as the seven of them, recorded a video, or wrote a post together and went through the situation point by point so that we were all on the same page. to clear up any misunderstandings and end the chapter of enhypen we have all loved so very much on a good note. maturely and respectfully for all parties. i would have loved that. and i would have loved to see the members continue to support each other. to do collaborations during promotions, and congratulate each other - hell, even just mentioning the other's name/s.
what we got was how you break up with your situationship of 6 months, lets be honest here okay. since the break-up they've acted as if the other doesn't exist even though they're still under the same agency roof, and as if they were never 7 at all. like heeseung was a complete rookie now that he's solo and that he's never done any idol work before.
so looking at the situation, i sincerely don't understand what they (both be:lift and enha) expect the fans to do after that. i really don't. and i say this out of a place of love for enhypen, from the bottom of my heart. like i love and respect them so much that i can take a step back and be like... hang on a second... i actually disagree with you here.
you cannot expect me to wake up the next morning and pretend that my ult bias just never existed in enhypen. to cut him out of everything and be okay with that.
heeseung will never be "erased" from enhypen. and in my opinion, he shouldn't be. i believe it is very disrespectful to ignore all the effort that hee, and the members, put into their ot7 work over the years and pretend it never happened. you cannot properly move on until you accept and talk about the past. i'm sorry but that's really just fact. what they are doing right now is unhealthy and not helping anyone. we should all be able to openly recognise that heeseung was part of enhypen. that he dedicated so much time and hard-work to produce and contribute to enhypen's discography and lore. we accept this, we love this era of enhypen, and now we move on. and we're able to support both 'evan' and 'enhypen'.
and actually, going even further i do not believe we should change the fanchants - jungwon i'm sorry. heeseung worked on those songs. heeseung was part of those songs. heeseung is part of the history of those songs. it is, in my humble opinion, disrespectful to remove that. all originally ot7 enhypen songs should keep their original fanchants, and future ot6 enhypen songs should get ot6 fanchants. to me, that makes logical sense. but that's just me.
you seriously cannot perform 'fate' and act like i don't hear heeseung's heavenly siren background vocals. heeseung will always be part of enhypen whether you like it or not, honestly.
be:lift could have avoided this controversy if they didn't have communication issues and the management strategy of a pigsty. be:lift could have avoided the situation completely if they just stopped fucking overworking enhypen with a schedule way too busy for a human being, giving heeseung an opportunity to do both. they have the power to change literally anything they are the company, they just can't be fucked.
because heeseung has told engene in the past, "i want to show you more of me; in both enhypen and as heeseung". you're not going to convince me this man willingly left enhypen without a company ultimatum. but hey, you know what would've solved all this speculation? communication! no way, i know right?!
honestly, enhypen used to be my pride and joy. i really don't know what my life as an engene is going to look like after this. and to me, it's heartbreaking that i'm even feeling any ounce of doubt about this. it just doesn't have the same spark it used to, which is devastating because they're literally my boys. deep down i'll always love them, i know that, but it just isn't the same right now.
i think everyone emotionally affected by this needs be:lift-sponsored month long vacations! including enha, because their hiatus is long overdue!
but remember, we will connect no matter what x
