After Heeseung left ENHYPEN, EVAN sold 461,000 copies on day one
Six months after leaving ENHYPEN, EVAN's DEATH OF ME sold 461,488 copies on Hanteo day one. He stayed at BELIFT, rebranded, dropped Ride or Die in June, and wrote across the mini.
Mina Park
On March 10, HYBE-linked label BELIFT LAB said Heeseung was leaving ENHYPEN. The group would continue as six. He would stay at the same company and prepare a solo album.
Six months later, that is no longer a press-release promise. As EVAN, he released the mini album DEATH OF ME on September 7. Korea's Hanteo Chart logged 461,488 copies on day one, No. 1 on the daily album ranking.
The title track topped Bugs in real time and entered Melon's Hot 100 at No. 5. Before release, BELIFT said Spotify pre-saves had cleared 500,000, the most for a K-pop soloist on the platform.
Our read: the story worth watching is what happened after the exit. He left the group and kept the same roof. Then he had to prove people still buy when his name is alone on the cover.
March exit, same roof
BELIFT's March statement said members had talked through the team's future, and Heeseung's musical direction was distinct enough to respect. ENHYPEN would move on with Jungwon, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, and Ni-ki. Heeseung would remain under BELIFT as a soloist.
He reintroduced himself as EVAN, a childhood nickname from years living overseas. In June he dropped the two-track digital single RIDE OR DIE, writing, composing, and producing both "Ride or Die" and "Overflow," and working the visuals too. That drop was the formal redebut under the new name.
While he built that lane, ENHYPEN released The Sin: Bliss on August 21, their first project as six, and took the Billboard 200. Same company, two calendars. The departure split the roster without splitting the building.
What DEATH OF ME actually is
The eight-track mini folds the June singles into a longer self-portrait, led by the title track "Death of Me" and closing with "Going Home." At Monday's Seoul showcase at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Palace, he said he worked production across the set and treated the album like a mirror of fear and forward motion.
The sound still sits near the dark, performance-first lane fans knew from ENHYPEN. What changes is the credit line: he wrote and produced across the set, and the personal story is the pitch. He has also been clear that the record should not be heard as a simple diary of leaving the group.
In the days before release, he spoke publicly about battling malignant lymphoma as a child, and how that history taught him what hope can mean. The album's hope theme comes from that story as much as from the March split. The title-line refusal ("ain't the death of me") carries both solo resolve and a longer survival story.
After the exit, what still moves
After an idol leaves, the calendar can go blank. EVAN's did not. He stayed inside BELIFT, renamed, shipped a self-led single, then opened a mini with a day-one number most mid-tier soloists never see.
Casual listeners may still hear Heeseung in the mix. The nearer question is simpler: after the March notice, did fandom and retail still show up?
For now, yes. M Countdown promotions start September 10. ENHYPEN keeps the six-member tour and album cycle. Both products are live under one roof.
Our take: the exit was the rupture. The six months after are the test. DEATH OF ME's opening day is the first receipt that the solo path has weight. Watch the next month of music-show stages and whether second-week sales hold without the old seven-member brand behind him. That is where "after the departure" stops being a headline and becomes a career.
