The past few weeks have been very rocky for the band One Direction… and Directioners.

Zayn Malik, one fifth of the band, decided to leave the band in order to go his own direction, and since then, things have changed. Malik initially took a few days off midway through the South East Asia leg of the One Direction tour, On the Road Again, because of rumors that Zayn Malik and fiancee Perrie Edwards (from the girl group, Little Mix) were going through a rough patch. A picture which shows Malik with his arm around a mystery girl triggered reactions from people all over social medias calling Malik a flurry of rude names. Zayn Malik left the band to be a “normal 22 year-old”. On March 25, 2015, One Direction released an official statement on Facebook saying that One Direction will continue as a four-person group, including Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry Styles. A few days later, a cyber fight broke out between Louis Tomlinson, Directioners, and Naughty Boy. After Naught Boy posted a video saying “Zaughty will rise” (Zayn + Naughty), some fans of Malik and Malik’s former band mate, Louis Tomlinson, were involved in a Twitter fight with Naughty Boy. Naughty then posted a demo of a song called “I Won’t Mind”, sung by, none other than, Zayn Malik. The title of the song, called “I Won’t Mind”, was referenced in one of Naughty Boy’s tweets in September. Naughty Boy tagged Zayn in this tweet, which was pretty weird when it was tweeted back in September. After hearing that Malik had been planning to start a solo career for a long time, many Directioners turned away from Zayn and were angered by him, while others tried to keep the fandom together. In the meantime, One Direction continued as a foursome to finish the rest of the South East Asian tour dates.

After almost a month of silence, Malik made an appearance at the Asian Awards on April 17, 2015 with a completely different look which included a nose stud and a shaved head.

The future of the One Direction fandom is unknown at the moment. Most fans have tried to stick together and continue to support One Direction as well as Zayn Malik as a solo artist. Band split ups are very sad; however, most of the time, everyone can bounce back, including the artists that split up. The best thing a fan can do is continue to support their groups instead of tearing people down. Hopefully this is some advice all fandoms, especially the One Direction fandom, will take in the months to come.