Another awards show, another chance for a Big Bang member to strike fear in the hearts of the K-pop boy band's longtime fans.
Rapper T.O.P began his acceptance speech for one of three awards his group won at Wednesday's 30th annual Golden Disk Awards in Seoul, South Korea with a promise they would continue to mature just as performers, but as people.
"Rather than being flashy outwardly as artists, we will try our best to be beautiful on the inside as we grow up," T.O.P said.
That was when the K-pop icon launched into the news that (while inevitable considering South Korea's law that all eligible males between the ages of 18 and 35 must enroll in nearly two years of military service), no fan of the band wanted to hear.
"From now on, I think there is only about a year left for you to see the Big Bang team on stage," said the 28-year-old star. "In that time, we'll try even harder to touch your hearts and answer with awesome music."
And T.O.P isn't the only Big Bang member to use the band's recent public appearances as a forum to hint to fans that the group, at least with its original lineup, is not going to be around for much longer.
At last month's Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) in Hong Kong, it was Taeyang's turn to drop some truth on the crowd.
"It may be difficult for all five of the Big Bang members to attend MAMA all together from now on," said the Big Bang singer, age 27.
"It was an honor to be able to put on the kind of performances we wanted to through MAMA and thank you for the great award."
The subtlety wasn't lost on fans (or the Korean entertainment media). Allkpop reader Danixkm is crushed by the revelation.
"Did you hear that?" the fan asked in a comment posted Wednesday. "It was just the sound of my heart breaking. At least they have such loyal fans that'll be waiting for them to all be together again."
In addition to winning Digital Single of the Year and the Daesang Grand Prize at The 2016 Golden Disk Awards, G-Dragon won the iQIYI Male Artist Award. Including these most recent honors, Big Bang's "MADE" series of eight singles released throughout the summer of 2015 has won 23 awards.
"MADE" has yet to be released as an album in Korea, but is scheduled to come out as as a full-length in Japan on Feb. 3 including Japanese language versions of the songs "Loser," "Bang Bang Bang" and "If You."
