Seo Jiyoon* (15) wakes up at seven and gets ready for school. She sits through “45-minute classes” as always, but she feels so bored this year that “it seems like they’re as long as an hour now.” Once home, she showers, eats and, afterwards disappears into her phone for a while, she sleeps and wakes up for school again. In light of this, Jiyoon watches YouTube as a way to melt her stress away as they wait for the weekend to come. In fact, she became a fan of TOMORROW X TOGETHER after watching a close-up “fancam” video of “Blue Hour” on YouTube. She started looking up other songs by the group and came to like the lyrics to “ Run Away ” in particular. There are many times “when I turn my data on and quickly put all their songs into a playlist,” so she has heard the lyrics numerous times, too. She likes that the line, “Should we run away?” is “not him just saying they should run away, but asking the other person’s opinion about it. ... Life when you’re stuck in a pattern is so boring, and sometimes I really think a lot about running away,” so she can relate to the lyrics.

This is the heart crying out that it wants to escape the repetition of life. Amid this difficulty, TOMORROW X TOGETHER are both friend-like idols and idol-like friends to Jiyoon. While their prompt to “run away” has her dreaming of escaping school, Jiyoon also feels “just like TAEHYUN when he talks about his average high school life stories; as in, that’s right, this is a normal school experience.” Jiyoon has also asked herself the same question that TOMORROW X TOGETHER asked in a game of “would you rather” on the radio show Listen, which they have hosted since January on EBS. Jiyoon said she found a lot of reference points for deciding on their career path by listening to HUENINGKAI and TAEHYUN’s thoughts. Listen writer Kwon Youngran said they “wanted TOMORROW X TOGETHER more than any other group because they debuted in their teens and have lots of teenage fans,” adding, “there’s been way more teen engagement , and that’s where the ‘real’ teenage stories come in.” She believes this reaction stems not only from the popularity of TOMORROW X TOGETHER, but also from the experiences they share in common with other teenagers. “I think they dreamed of becoming idols but they also had experiences that regular teenagers do, including things that all teens should experience,” she said. “They have experience making new friends and worrying about school and their careers, so when they listen to teens tell their stories, their reaction is genuine and they’re ready to give empathetic responses right away.”

Lately, TOMORROW X TOGETHER have been yelling the phrase “muyaho” in their broadcasts and videos. The meme, based on one particular scene from the since-finished MBC show Infinite Challenge, started to spread and gain popularity, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER have been using it sporadically from last summer. Lee Chaesun* (16) felt a kind of kinship with the group because of that. “I like to watch old funny videos like Infinite Challenge with my friends lately,” she said. “It feels like TOMORROW X TOGETHER are the same as me, using the same popular slang and everyday language I hear all over school at the same time as us. Sometimes they start using them before we even do.” Whereas adults watched Infinite Challenge bit by bit as it aired, teenagers see it as an old variety show they can check out on YouTube, which gives rise to new trends as teens digest the show’s clips from their own perspective. TOMORROW X TOGETHER take to Weverse, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms popular with teens to share in that age group’s trends, such as retelling personal anecdotes in detail, “would you rather” questions, the game Among Us and more. “My parents say they didn’t really have many afterschool academies in their day, but now they’re all comparing with neighbors to see whose kids are doing better,” according to Chaesun. “It’s gotten harder over time.” Chaesun’s parents are in fact most likely from a generation that attended many academies as a part of school life and stressed over the high emotional toll of the entrance exam as well. But for teens currently going through the experience, academies and exams are an ongoing, painful procedure—“wake up, go to school, leave school and eat dinner, go for afterschool lessons, come home again, do homework, wake up and go to school again”—that turns living into a repetitive nightmare. This is why Chaesun laughed sympathetically when TOMORROW X TOGETHER said “I go to school to eat lunch” on Listen. It is a phrase commonly thrown around by teenagers, but their feelings about their lifestyle are hiding within.

Yoo Soojin* (17) feels similarly about the group. “I watch fan videos [of TOMORROW X TOGETHER] on YouTube, and there’s some ‘real high schooler moments’ compilations, where the members use the same words that students do,” she said. “When I heard the way they talk, I thought, ‘Wow—they’re no different from us!’ ” Soojin reconnected with idol culture after a two-year hiatus because TOMORROW X TOGETHER “are all so good-looking” and because she “like[s] collecting merch, and there’s tons of TOMORROW X TOGETHER merch.” But it is not only because the group speaks the same way that Soojin is so engrossed in them: she was taken aback at how “really, really honest” TOMORROW X TOGETHER are when they talk with fans on V LIVE and Weverse. Last year, with regard to the unexpected negative reaction online over the “Blue Hour” dance break the group showed off at the 2020 Melon Music Awards, TAEHYUN shared his thoughts and feelings with fans via V LIVE about what went on behind the scenes while recording and during practice. SOOBIN takes things other people might want to hide, like his fears, worries and mistakes, and candidly reveals them, occasionally confiding in his fans things he has developed complexes about. “I don’t show what kind of person I am at the start of the semester because I might seem weird if I open up too much about myself right away,” Soojin said. “But TOMORROW X TOGETHER don’t hide anything about any trouble they have while working; they are upfront about it and I really like that. I feel like they can do that because they really trust and like their fans.” Fans also tell the group their own stories. “I know it’s not easy for artists to talk about all the stuff I’m curious about,” Chaesun said, “but it’s cool when they take, for example, 30 questions from fans and answer them all. I’m grateful for that. I used to feel like they were from a different planet, but then I felt like maybe they’re kind of similar to me, actually.” Just as friends ask and answer questions about one another on ASKfm to foster a closer emotional connection, idols and their fans have built a similar relationship. In some ways, idols are forming a unique culture or peer group with their fans. Kwon, the writer on Listen, said she “can tell teenagers are finding comfort through the simple act of coming together to tell one another their own stories,” and that “there are stories these teens want to tell that stand in contrast to the perspectives of adults.”

At this point, TOMORROW X TOGETHER are more than idols: they are peers of and role models for their teenage fans. “Even if one of SOOBIN’s performances is a little off, he doesn’t get intimidated and improves himself by being open with his feelings and sharing his thoughts with his fans,” Chaesun said. “When I see that, it helps me to slowly overcome my own problems.” This is precisely the positive impact TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s confidence has on teenage fans in the group’s direct contact with them and in media appearances. If you were to search “narcissistic K-pop group” on YouTube, videos of TOMORROW X TOGETHER may surface. For example, there is a clip where the members are asked who they think is most handsome among them, and they all choose themselves; when fans send compliments, they praise themselves even more. “I feel like my self-esteem has gone up a bit by being a fan,” Jiyoon said. “All five members love themselves and have high self-esteem and that has an effect on me.” Sharing the influence the group has had on them, Chaesun said, “After watching TOMORROW X TOGETHER, I thought I should accept myself, too. Now I compliment myself in front of my friends all the time, and they say, ‘You’re becoming just like TOMORROW X TOGETHER.’ (laughs)”

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s confidence does not spring up from unconditional self-esteem but as an antidote to their anxieties and concerns. The members often confess to their fans through their Weverse diaries that they used to feel timid, lacked confidence or had low self-esteem. What we see in TOMORROW X TOGETHER is an emotional state that can arise in adolescence as well. In adolescence, we explore unfamiliar environments, are influenced by our interpersonal relationships and define ourselves through self-reflection. It is natural, therefore, that “It feels like everybody's happy but me / It hurts more when I smile than when I cry” (“Run Away ”) during this process. However, just as the boy in “CROWN” accepts the figurative “horns” of growing pains as his cherished “crown,” a teenager’s inner turbulence can be similarly calmed with a transition to positivity and self-acceptance. TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s simultaneous expression of anxiety and self-esteem that they present to fans is an inner conflict that teenagers really do undergo and also serves as evidence that the members have faced, and are currently facing, the same challenges as their followers. “Teenagers are more likely to acknowledge and accept others than to accept themselves for who they are,” Kim Eun Ji, head of the Youth Mobile Counseling Center, says. “B y accepting and acknowledging the friends around them, it becomes a little easier for them to accept and acknowledge themselves. So I’d like them to start by acknowledging their friends and accepting them.” For their teenage fans, TOMORROW X TOGETHER are idols but can also be their friends. “When I was a teenager, I started getting into idols because of how they looked and danced, but as I got closer to my 20s, the message really hit home with me,” said Lee Soyoung*, a TOMORROW X TOGETHER fan who is now 24. “I was having a hard time, and I didn’t feel brave enough to deal with it, but I felt better after listening to the lyrics to ‘Run Away .’ It was comforting just to hear someone say, ‘Why not just forget it?’ when I wanted to escape my problems.” Seo Hyunji* (22) felt similarly: “Now that I’m old enough to be getting a job, I think I really get why the members worked so hard when they were trainees. It means a lot to me because they were kind of getting a job, too.” Having already been teenagers themselves, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s message is easier to embrace.

During the “Teen Lab” segment of the January 17 broadcast of Listen, TAEHYUN and HUENINGKAI continued their conversation with listeners with the topic, “What kind of adults do teens dislike lately?” Various points were brought up, from typical thoughts on grown-ups, to what to do if an adult asks a rude question. Kwon considered omitting the question, concerned that the subject might stir up controversy, but TAEHYUN suggested leaving the piece as-is, saying it would be fun. When they decided to go through with it, she “was surprised by how teens really feel, as I heard those points only they could know about”—adults who discriminate, who ignore others and impose their views on them, and who cling to stereotypes. By sharing and empathizing with images of adults they dislike, these teenagers were arguably also envisioning the type of people they wish to become. Some teens go to school while others go to work. Others might wander down a less certain road. In the end, they all hope to grow up to be better adults than the ones they know now—a hope that sometimes leads idols and their fans to talk about their school life, MBTI, and whatever is troubling them. This moment, as these teenagers head toward a better tomorrow, is their “Blue Hour.”

* Names have been changed.