Recently the famous British-Irish boyband, One Direction has permanently lost one of the five members. At the very end of March, Zayn Malik decided it was in his best interest to depart from the band and was ‘Ready to Run.’ Malik felt that it’s important for him to be a normal 22-year-old boy who is able to relax and live his life out of the spotlight.

“My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band,” Malik said.

To a lot of fans, this was a huge surprise and also very saddening to find out. Instantly, they started wondering what was going to happen to One Direction and the tour that hadn’t even ended yet. Would the tour be canceled? Is this the end of One Direction?

To answer the first question, even though Malik left in the midst of the On the Road Again Tour, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles are continuing to be a part of One Direction and are finishing the worldwide tour without him. In addition to finishing the tour, the four-piece will also be releasing their fifth album later this year.

“We’re really sad to see Zayn go, but we totally respect his decision and send him all our love for the future. The past five years have been beyond amazing, we’ve gone through so much together, so we will always be friends. The four of us will now continue. We’re looking forward to recording the new album and seeing all the fans on the next stage of the world tour,” One Direction said.

Right now, One Direction is on break from their tour until June. During this break the band will be taking the time to write and record their fifth album and also spend time with their families. They will start up again on June 5 and continue until Oct. 31 where they will end with the European leg of the tour.

To answer the second big question, this is not the end of One Direction. Although they will never be the same without Malik, this is far from the end for them. The four remaining band members are going to work just as hard as they did before, maybe even harder to keep the band going.

Even though the members of One Direction have gone in two directions, the only direction the band is going now is forward.