Why did the boys have to grow up? In &TEAM’s original story “DARK MOON: THE GREY CITY,” the werewolves, looking to defend their families and their new home, Greyville, fight back against the vampires they had once fled from in terror. They ultimately emerge victorious but lose their family and home in the process, on top of which they have to part ways with the one they’ll ever love. For werewolves—communal, territorial creatures who only ever love once—losing everything that mattered most to them marks a bittersweet, Pyrrhic victory only. Hence the voiceover that opens the BREATH concept clip for “Back to Life,” &TEAM’s first mini album released in Korea: “Defeat left scars on the boys”—head to toe, and emotionally as well. The bandages they’re wrapped in are bloodstained and tattered, having long since ceased serving their purpose. Through their scars, they bear the unmistakable marks of defeat—from the cut left on the bridge of HARUA’s nose to the much deeper wound on FUMA’s shoulder.

But covered in wounds as the group may be, they come back into the ring swinging. NICHOLAS faces an unbeatable foe at one point—his mirror image—while TAKI takes on a punching bag that can’t feel the punches thrown at it. YUMA’s too dizzy to stand, let alone run away, and K’s motorcycle sits stationary, its tires ablaze. As the defeats pile up, the wounds run deeper and deeper. “Defeat did not bring them down,” though, “and now, the boys once again knock on the gates of battle.” Just like &TEAM sings in “Lunatic,” the boys “know they all gonna call us crazy,” and even though “they said ‘give it up’ to me” and they’re covered in “big scars,” they “still don’t bend.” It’s not that they won’t be hurt again, just that they’ll keep moving forward in spite of it. And it’s not that they never face defeat, just that they’ve learned how not to crumble under its weight. Like the young werewolves in “DARK MOON: THE GREY CITY,” they have to grow up now to make sure they don’t lose anyone from their family of nine. Having someone to protect means having to be mature enough to take on that responsibility. It’s this underlying theme woven into “Back to Life” that shows how &TEAM intends to move forward. What does it take for boys to become men?

In most media, werewolves aren’t children—they’re adults doing the protecting, feared as much as they are revered. &TEAM’s werewolves, however, aren’t really whole—neither fully wolf nor human, and grappling with a sense of inclusion and identity. They’re also caught in a precarious spot where they’re no longer children but not quite adults capable of protecting themselves and others. As described in the lyrics to the titular track off “Back to Life,” they’re in a transition period—they’re about to “go insane,” each of their “heart’s about to burst” pushing themselves to “the edge” as they walk “on this rugged road” and “tryna fit in.” Even with all the chaos around them, they’re finding their own way forward into adulthood. They go on to sing about how they’ve grown accustomed to the “familiar fight” and how they “take another step” over and over, “again and again,” to keep progressing. But while their choreography resembles primitive wolf-like movement, the emotional struggles they convey are decidedly human. MAKI’s moves are paired with lines like “Tough skin I’ve earned / And it’s glorious” and “Every cell pushes me on” and symbolize the seemingly conflicting concepts of growing and pain, gazing at his calloused hands and holding his face in them in anguish. The group restricts themselves to a relatively small portion of the stage, keeping things to a minimum except when moving to another part of the stage together or dancing as one. When they take to center stage, they move their arms around their torsos to draw attention to their emotions. Then, during the second chorus with the line “Only you / Bring me back to life,” the group members spread their arms wide and tap their right foot in rhythm, unleashing the emotions they had held in check up to that point in an explosion of release. Even in the concept clips, where they look like simple angels or fairies on the surface, they actually harbor complex, conflicted human emotions underneath. In the GAZE version, for instance, as JO explains in a making-of video, the boys are dressed like angels, yet their facial expressions suggest something “more of a fallen angel—like a demon,” and instead of soaring through the air, they merely stare off into the distance with melancholy eyes. In the ROAR version, as TAKI describes in another behind-the-scenes look, where they each resemble an “elf living in the forest,” their fellow wolves’ howls fall on deaf ears as some of them emotionlessly pick up a stone or wield a sword. Are they wolves, or are they humans? Are they children, or are they adults? Are they angels, or are they demons? Are they forest guardians, or oppressors? &TEAM doesn’t fully conform to any single one of these. Instead, they seem to possess the ability to become anything.

&TEAM’s werewolves, never truly fully wolf or human, eventually embrace both parts of who they are. Similarly, as a group of boys on the cusp of manhood, they carry their childhoods forward, scars and all. In that sense, “Back to Life” is both an answer to the question of why they must grow up as well as how they’re pressing forward while making peace with pain and imperfection. In the ROAR concept clip, the group members find themselves in an unfamiliar world, arming themselves with swords and stones and meeting all the eyes on them in order to survive. It’s not just symbolic—it’s fully rooted in reality. With their first Korean album, &TEAM has taken their first true step onto Korean shores, and with it comes a greater number of eyes fixed on them. The mysterious forest in the ROAR clip mirrors two times the group has ventured into unfamiliar territory: when they first went from the reality show “&AUDITION - The Howling” to their debut, and taking a chance to see what awaits them in Korea today. As EJ points out behind the scenes, “It’s been three years since our debut and we’re doing a similar concept again, so you’ll be able to see how much we’ve grown.” They already successfully crossed the threshold from training to debut—now it’s time for them to prove themselves at “the gates of battle” once again. Just as the boy within the wolf grows into an adult, &TEAM has overcome their scars and taken their first steps on a journey into a mysterious new world.