In TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s new album The Star Chapter: TOGETHER’s concept trailer, YEONJUN once again breaks the horn sprouting from his head—a gesture he had shown before in the “Nap of a Star” music video. But the intent this time is markedly different. In “Nap of a Star,” YEONJUN endured the pain of removing the horn—the most fearsome part of himself that isolates him—reflecting the anxiety he expressed in their debut track, “CROWN,” where he sang, “Maybe I have turned into a monster.” Through the narrative, he eventually experiences the process of feeling “perfect” like a “crown,” encountering four other boys, each navigating their own growing pains. Six years later, the concept trailer gives the horn yet another layer of meaning. Seen through TAEHYUN’s eyes, SOOBIN is trapped in a burning house. Without a moment’s hesitation, YEONJUN snaps his horn, using it to tear down the curtain that blocks their escape. Meanwhile, HUENINGKAI’s half-formed wings begin to bloom into a new pair, decorated with thorns. Thanks to BEOMGYU’s healing ability, which manifests as thorns along his shoulders, HUENINGKAI is finally able to reach SOOBIN. Until now, horns in TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s narrative have symbolized the shift from seeing the world through “my” perspective to seeing it through “yours.” Now, they take on a new meaning: a tool to save “you.”
In The Star Chapter: TOGETHER’s concept trailer, YEONJUN, BEOMGYU, TAEHYUN, and HUENINGKAI defy gravity to reach SOOBIN. This imagery of ascent is one that TOMORROW X TOGETHER has often explored before. In the previous album, The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY, the title track “Over The Moon” had them promising to “push off this ground” to make their loved one smile, while “Higher Than Heaven” dreamed of sharing “eternity” together, reaching “higher than heaven.” But in The Star Chapter: TOGETHER, the opening track “Upside Down Kiss” turns the imagery of rising and falling on its head with lyrics like “laughing at gravity,” and “we’ll just stay flipped,” capturing the moment of a kiss. Similarly, in The Star Chapter: SANCTUARY’s first track “Heaven,” TOMORROW X TOGETHER sang, “Heaven is not far away now, the moment we kissed.” In contrast, “Upside Down Kiss” emphasizes the will to overcome the oppressive force of “gravity.” Even when “our two feet are tied to two different worlds and can’t quite touch each other’s,” they declare they will break free “off its orbit” and feel “freer than ever.” The “Beautiful Strangers” music video, set in a dystopian world ruled by systems, mirrors this defiance. Faced with a countdown signaling the end, they neither despair nor flee. Following the slogan in the video, “THE END HAS NO EXIT, UNLESS YOU CREATE ONE,” they clear the surveillance cameras blocking their path, grasp the hands of wandering members, and run through the dark tunnel. No longer waiting to be saved, they reach out to “you,” make eye contact, and hold hands to face the end together. At last, the five boys who chose to break free at the world’s end become one.
Until now, TOMORROW X TOGETHER has always waited for someone to save them. In “Run Away”, they sang, “At the world’s end, forever together,” pleading, “Please call my name.” Similarly, in “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You) feat. Seori”, they hoped to be loved and saved, singing, “Till the end of the world,” and “Save me.” But the boys who once searched for “you” to call their name now declare, “Let’s not be afraid.” Symbols of past flaws and wounds—“broken wings” and “horns”—remain, like scars, but in “Beautiful Strangers,” TOMORROW X TOGETHER reframes them as “proof of our love,” discovering “the reason not to be afraid,” “even if the world laughs” at them. The “summoning spell” once invoked in “Run Away” to connect you and me into us is no longer relied upon. In “Beautiful Strangers,” even “in a world where the spell is broken,” they remind themselves, “Let’s not be afraid,” urging to cherish the present moment. Standing before a world where magic has crumbled, they realize that true magic isn’t the fantasy created by escape—it’s the presence of those beside them.
In The Star Chapter: TOGETHER, the five solo tracks themed around “being together” become individual pathways of narrative growth. YEONJUN’s “Ghost Girl” shows a more mature self than the boy who once pleaded to be saved, as he sings, “I’ll lose myself and forget the real world” for love. The mirror that once symbolized identity confusion in “Maze in the Mirror” reappears in HUENINGKAI’s “Dance With You,” but now transformed. Beyond simply understanding “you,” he wishes to resemble even “the way you talk, the timing of your breath,” turning love into a metaphor of reflection. In SOOBIN’s “Sunday Driver,” the act of driving—once a means of escape in the “0X1=LOVESONG” video—becomes a romantic date with someone he loves. BEOMGYU’s “Take My Half” demonstrates a newfound maturity, revealing that even if he gives away half of himself, the remaining half can still be filled with happiness. TAEHYUN’s “Bird of Night” raises the question, “What does it mean to be an adult?” and acknowledges that “in the midst of choices piling up and all the uncertainty,” growing up carries doubt. Yet he offers comfort in the belief that “any kind of darkness in this world will someday glow,” and brings the album’s theme into focus with the lyrics, “The reason I stay awake is to move toward the stars with you together.” What was once “my own night flight” in solitude transforms into “our night flight” in “a resplendent night” when shared. And TAEHYUN’s comfort—offered to today’s youth as they gaze at “the same star” in the darkness, recalling their own struggles—flows seamlessly into “Song of the Stars,” which begins with his voice. As the lyrics go—“Following the voice of stars, you and I sing along”—the meaning of “being together” that TOMORROW X TOGETHER conveys becomes a story for all who have ever wandered through the darkness of their own nights.
The music and performance of “Beautiful Strangers” trace a delicate emotional line—one that feels brimming with intensity, yet never spills over too easily. Even against the undercurrent of a trap beat, the members of TOMORROW X TOGETHER deliver restrained vocals, adding just a hint of rhythmic lift. At the song’s emotional peak—the chorus—they resist the urge to belt. Instead, they layer subtle contrasts: a falsetto “We’re beautiful” followed by a grounded, full-voiced “strangers,” articulating the nuance of conflicting emotions. The performance mirrors this same restraint and release. For most of the song, the members use gentle, fluid hand movements to emphasize detail and vulnerability. But as the EDM drop surges in after the chorus, the choreography bursts into rapid, forceful motion, unleashing the song’s most powerful emotions. TOMORROW X TOGETHER offers not only the fine grain of subtle feeling but also the catharsis of explosive energy on stage. It is the culmination of seven years in the making. The boys who once escaped into worlds of fantasy to survive reality’s absurdities now stand without magic—yet what they have found is something even stronger. Hand in hand, they run forward together, discovering a power more enduring than any spell. The opening verse of “Song of the Stars,” the final track on The Star Chapter: TOGETHER, recalls the promises scattered throughout TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s journey. It echoes the vow of “Nap of a Star”—“Even if we part, let’s meet here again”—and the plea from Run Away: “So there will be no more tears, let’s make a magic spell with your tears.” It also summons the memory of “Magic Island,” where they sang, “The little song we left on this island, please don’t ever forget.” These small promises, layered over time, gather in “Song of the Stars” to become “our name” and “the reason we are together.” For every youth who has wandered in search of a “star,” TOMORROW X TOGETHER offers a new starting line: the realization that true magic has always been right beside us.
