Fans react to Zayn's departure from One Direction

By CHELSEA HUANG

One Direction caused quite the stir -- er, explosion -- Wednesday afternoon when they announced that Zayn Malik had left the band after five years to pursue a "normal" 22-year-old life.

Fans of the popular boy band orchestrated by Simon Cowell on "The X Factor" in 2010 immediately took to social media to speak out about the injustice, share their extreme range of emotions and seek companionship to help ease the pain.

The tweets, featured in the slideshow above, range from outrageously funny to just plain sad.

A somewhat macabre hashtag #AlwaysInOurHeartsZaynMalik even began to trend, highlighting the supreme loss they felt.

Some even went as far as to threaten suicide.

With a penchant for the dramatic, directioners, as the superfans are known, are no strangers to blowing up the Twittersphere. Before Wednesday's outburst they had expressed concerns about Zayn's wellbeing -- as well as Harry, Niall, Louis and Liam -- in a similarly outrageous manner.

If only the producers had listened ...

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