From their debut album, Sparkling Blue, to their latest release, SUMMER BEAT!, TWS’s life at school is all about growing as people as they try new things. In the music video for their debut single, “plot twist,” the TWS members find themselves at the start of the semester and having to adapt to their new environment. The night before their big first day, they jot down a little to do list: “Say hi first / Strike up a conversation / Leave a great first impression.” Lines like, “I’m a natural-born type ‘I,’” from “first hooky” (Sparkling Blue) or, “Yes I’m shy,” from “YOU+ME=7942 (SUMMER BEAT!), reflect how all six members remain determined to strike up conversations with others and make a good impression despite being introverts in real life. Their “first encounters are always so hard” and don’t go as planned: DOHOON ends up oversleeping and has to rush off to school, only to open the door to the wrong classroom; YOUNGJAE, who practiced waving hello in the safety of his room, embarrasses himself when he realizes all too late that the person he waves back to was actually waving at somebody else. But, just like the words to the song say, the TWS members own the fact that they “act a little stiff,” right “down to our awkward greeting,” looking on the bright side of how “wonderful to see” new people has been, and knowing there’s always “tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow” to try again, making a promise to themselves to keep trying to make new friends.

In “first hooky” off Sparkling Blue, the TWS members “break the mold inside me / Close my eyes tight and work up the courage” to play hooky for the first time, skipping class to become closer friends. Once they’ve convinced themselves to be “someone else just for the day,” they hop on a bus for adventure, and with that, they’ve broken the rules for the first time. The part in the song about going on an adventure on a bus might not seem like a big deal to grown-ups, but when you’re in school and have to follow all the rules and do everything your teachers tell you to, it takes a lot of nerve to break away like this—especially for a gang of introverts like TWS. In their “BFF” music video, the boys make their way all around the school, moving through classes, the hall, and the gym. Unlike in “plot twist,” when “there’s three steps between you and me,” here they define their friendships in a new light: “No more cheesy lines, we’re past that now.” They’ve even swapped out their rigid uniforms for more comfortable gym clothes. The daring adventure they took together in “first hooky” evolves into a promise in “BFF” befitting the title: “You and I’ll be friends forever.” To drive the point home, the boys make the typical V-shaped peace sign on both hands and bring them together to form a W, symbolizing that, together, they can “‘W’in.”

Where “BFF” stands for “be friends forever,” they make a new declaration in “YOU+ME=7942” off SUMMER BEAT!: “ABCDE “Forever”” cementing their status as best friends. Besides TWS’s albums, there’s all the videos they upload, where they show how close they’ve grown by presenting themselves in a staged school setting. The short series Under My Nose explores how the distance between the group members has shrunken both literally and emotionally, beginning by asking “how close are the TWS members” 14 days after their debut, and reveals how they’ve gone from boys getting ready to show their faces to the world to working together as a tight team. There’s also TWS:CLUB, which takes place in mid-March, when the school clubs are looking for new members, a concept that does a good job demonstrating the bonding process between the boys. In their travel show Seeing Eye to Eye, released during the peak of the May field trip season, the group members are already so close with each other they can identify one another just by hearing their footsteps. All their different series, playing on the idea of following them throughout the school year, offer a glimpse into the very real friendships the group formed between putting out Sparkling Blue and SUMMER BEAT!, and the songs off the albums themselves tell school stories that perfectly mirror the experiences of these boys in the first semester of their own new journey as idols. The parallels between what they’re going through every day as they enter the entertainment world and make friends with one another, and what the typical teen goes through as they make new friends and navigate their changing world, are undeniable.

The music video for “If I’m S, Can You Be My N?” expands the setting of the TWS universe as the boys enter summer vacation and spend their time in places very familiar to any Korean teen: cram schools and convenience stores. Contrasting with the drab tones of the school is a track and field complex. The cram school academy the TWS members attend is called GO HIGH, and a banner reading the same thing is hung in place to cheer SHINYU on as he competes at high jump, suggesting that both studying and track and field share in common the opportunity to compete and go higher. At the very moment SHINYU leaps up, DOHOON, HANJIN, JIHOON, and KYUNGMIN join forces to mimic shooting energy from their hands to give SHINYU a boost, while YOUNGJAE, watching from his seat at the cram school, sucks up his courage to jump into the chalkboard full of clouds and meet SHINYU in the sky, grabbing his hand. Though the video ends with SHINYU on his back and the bar he was supposed to hurdle over on top of him—a sign that he apparently failed to make the jump—he lies there smiling. As the viewer, we can guess how much he got out of the experience just by giving it his all. The phrase “GO HIGH” means more than just achieving goals: It’s about pushing yourself to greater heights with your friends by your side. By expanding the TWS world to include school competitions, the “If I’m S, Can You Be My N?” video drives home the point about how important friendship is. From awkward first encounters to botched high jumps, the TWS world isn’t an easy one for its idol students. But even with the slip-ups, school for the boys is a place where they can track their growth. Friendship helps TWS overcome shyness and fear, and they demonstrate how student life reveals the complex emotions and experiences that teens go through, further reenforcing the importance of school and the friends you make there. It’s a competitive space, and at times an intimidating one, but also one that encourages growth and gives its students the strength to overcome challenges—and teaches them how to have a good time while they’re there: just take one letter from each of the names KYUNGMIN, DOHOON, JIHOON, SHINYU, YOUNGJAE, and HANJIN, and you can GO HIGH, too.