PENTAGON debuted on Oct. 10, 2016, ten members deep, introduced through Mnet’s competition show Pentagon Maker. Ten years later, the group is marking its anniversary with a new single, an Asia tour, and a lineup of seven.
That number tells the story in miniature. PENTAGON’s first decade was not a straight climb from rookies to veterans. It was a breakout song, a sudden derailment, a four-year wait for a first music show win, and a slow scattering across separate agencies. Reaching 10 years looks less like momentum than survival.
How the 10th anniversary project came together
The anniversary project is being coordinated by NAKED, the label founded by member Kino. That detail matters. The company that formed PENTAGON, Cube Entertainment, is not running the reunion.
The participating lineup is Jinho, Hui, Hongseok, Shinwon, Yeo One, Kino and Wooseok. Yan An and Yuto, the group’s Chinese and Japanese members, are not taking part. Neither has been formally announced as having left PENTAGON.
The anniversary single arrived on Sept. 11, 2026, the group’s first new song in nearly three years. English-language reports have used both “Coward” and “Cowardice” for the title. Kino oversaw production and contributed to the composition and lyrics alongside writers including Kim Eana and Baek Eun-byul.
According to NAKED, the track is about finding the courage to face someone deeply missed after years apart, a theme that can also be read as a message to the fans who stayed.
“Shine” gave PENTAGON its defining breakthrough
PENTAGON’s origin was unusual from the start. Cube, which built its name on BEAST, 4Minute and BTOB, introduced the group through a competition show rather than a conventional rollout. E’Dawn, Shinwon and Yan An were eliminated on Pentagon Maker, but the members persuaded the company to debut all 10 contestants together, Hui said at the group’s debut showcase.
In 2017, Cube placed Hui and E’Dawn in Triple H, a coed project trio with HyunA. Hui was also building a reputation as a songwriter outside the group, contributing to Mnet’s Produce 101 Season 2 and its winning act, Wanna One.
The real breakthrough came in April 2018 with “Shine,” co-written by Hui and E’Dawn. It was a slow burn. The song entered the Melon Top 100 nearly a month after release, then peaked at No. 27 on the Gaon Digital Chart and No. 6 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart.
For a group barely 18 months into its career, it was the kind of break most acts never get.
The 2018 controversy that reset the group’s course
Four months after “Shine” took off, HyunA and E’Dawn confirmed they were in a relationship. Cube had initially denied reports that the two Triple H members were dating. The company then canceled the trio’s remaining activities and removed E’Dawn from PENTAGON’s scheduled promotions.
In September 2018, Cube announced it would expel the pair, citing an “irreparable loss of trust.” HyunA left the company that October, and E’Dawn departed both Cube and PENTAGON in November.
PENTAGON continued as a nine-member group, but the attention from “Shine” never converted into sustained momentum. The first music show trophy finally arrived in October 2020 with “Daisy,” four years after debut.
Boys Planet, expiring contracts, and the years apart
In 2023, Hui returned to trainee status, competing on Mnet’s Boys Planet under his legal name, Lee Hoe-taek. Then 29, he stood against contestants who had not yet debuted. He finished 13th, missing a place in the nine-member project group ZEROBASEONE.
Contract exits followed. Yeo One, Yan An, Yuto, Kino and Wooseok left Cube in October 2023, then Hongseok that November. Jinho and Hui ended their contracts in 2025, and Shinwon’s concluded after his mandatory military service. The departing members maintained PENTAGON had not disbanded, though separate agencies made group activity harder to arrange.
Seven of them finally shared a stage again on Feb. 15, 2026, at the 33rd Hanteo Music Awards at KSPO Dome in Seoul. It was their first group appearance in nearly three years. PENTAGON won the “10th Anniversary – Influential Artist” award and performed “Promise” and “Shining Light.”
“Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye,” the group said from the stage. “Our members, who gathered with passion and vigor, have reached our 10th anniversary with unwavering hearts.”
The 101010 tour and the road ahead
The anniversary tour opens in Osaka on Oct. 1, then moves to Tokyo on Oct. 3, Seoul on Oct. 9 and 10, and Hong Kong on Nov. 1. The second Seoul show lands exactly 10 years after the group’s debut.
No North American dates have been announced. For US fans, the anniversary single and the Hanteo stage remain the clearest picture of where PENTAGON stands as it enters a second decade.
Why PENTAGON’s decade matters beyond the fandom
Most K-pop groups reach a milestone anniversary still attached to the agency that built them. PENTAGON did not. Seven artists signed to different companies reassembled around a project organized by one of their own members, with no guarantee of what comes next.
That makes the group a useful case study in what a career can look like once the standard idol contract cycle runs out. Self-producing was always central to PENTAGON’s identity. In its second decade, that skill set has quietly become the operating model.
Whether NAKED keeps coordinating group releases, whether Yan An or Yuto appear in a future lineup, and whether the tour extends past Hong Kong all remain open questions. Three years after Hui stood before judges asking for another chance to debut, PENTAGON is no longer waiting on an audition program or a former agency to hand it one.