Youth is all about passion and possibilities. The button you nervously fidget with the first time you ever wear your school uniform. The deep sigh when you wear it for the last time. Your body running hot as you sprint under the blazing sun with your friends cheering you on. The heat radiating from your phone during a call that stretches into the night. Your heart beating in your ears when your hand brushes theirs. Nonstop laughter on an early summer evening as the rain comes down. The first page of a new diary full of resolutions. The passion that rises in you in each of these youthful snapshots may be unique, but each and every one of them is full of possibilities. The feeling of waiting for tomorrow is a mix of uncertainty and excitement, but that passion is something only someone who truly believes in the possibilities of tomorrow can revel in.

NCT WISH’s music always incorporates a sense of possibility. In “WISH,” they make “a little wish I’ve always had” come true by conjuring up images of a distant door that leads to a future with that special someone, and in “Songbird,” they tune into a never-ending song while painting “our future on this blank canvas.” The story between a boy and girl begins with a “poppop” and a racing heart, the “COLOR” of passion spreading before their eyes only, and hinting at scenes to come. They confidently offer reassurance in “Ode to Love” that “even the days that make you cry / Will pass you by,” because they know in “YO-I-DON!” that as long as they don’t lose each other, they can smile their way through whatever comes their way. In other words, they’re fully aware of the possibilities spread out before them.

For NCT WISH, being young isn’t like a lone flame burning on its own, more like the warmth between hands pressed together—something you only feel when you press them together tight to make a wish for someone, or hold their hand as you face the world together. They keep youth forever at their fingertips, ready to lend a helping hand.

“WISH”: Being young means moving forward
NCT WISH’s debut single, “WISH,” makes it perfectly clear what they’re all about: moving forward. They themselves are the source of that wish, of that unstoppable drive. They ask themselves what story they want to tell, what their dream really is. Before long, they realize someone else has been there all along. They “wish … for you to be happy” and confess they love “you, just as you are.” For them, a dream or a goal is ultimately synonymous with this other person, so they keep moving forward unwaveringly to be with their one-and-only.

You can see just where they’re headed in the sound driving “WISH,” too. The old-school hip hop sound running through “WISH” is full of free-spirited energy, and paired with the youthful spirit the group exudes, it conjures up an image of boys with the potential to become anything—playful but confident, certain that tomorrow will bring them closer to their dream, to that special someone.

“Sail Away” moves in the same direction. With a sound that evokes the deep blue sea and a rhythm like rolling waves, it compares chasing their dreams together to a ship raising its sails and setting off. The wide open ocean is vast and deep, with no end in sight, and its sheer scale can stir up uncertainty as well, but even with all that, they don’t lose sight of their goals, tossing off a line about how they’ll maybe try swimming for a bit.

“WISH” is the single where NCT WISH first made their vision clear. They trust you’ll always be a part of their dream, and with faith in that fact, they press on.

“Steady - The 1st Mini Album”: Facing the here and now
If “WISH” is about finding direction, “Steady,” the group’s first mini album, is about taking a long look at this other person once they’ve finally caught up with them. With their dream person within their grasp at last, they want this moment together to really last. Love is what turns a fleeting feeling into something eternal, but keeping that love alive isn’t about some grand gesture—it’s about never taking your eyes off each other.

With all confidence, they declare that even if the world were ending, they’d get their feelings across one way or another (“3 Minutes”). They carve out a little private time for two (“On & On”), certain that everything’s down to fate (“Skate”) because their eyes are locked, right here, right now (“Steady”). And all that assuredness stems from one fact—that, at this very moment, it’s that special someone they’ve got their eyes on. The same fact that provides the possibility for tomorrow.

The music on the album captures the range of emotions that come with falling in love in an instant. The beat on “Steady,” a mix of house, UK garage, and Jersey club, is like an unpredictable heartbeat, while the upbeat synths on “3 Minutes” back lyrics about bravely opening up about your feelings. Then there’s the laid-back, late-summer night vibes of “Skate,” carrying that same certainty over into a love that feels like fate. They work through each of these moments with a different sonic texture to arrive at the present day where the pair is united.

“COLOR”: The signal that ensures we recognize each other
When you picture two people destined to meet, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the instant recognition the moment they lay eyes on one another—from living entirely separate lives to knowing it was meant to be in a snap. But that’s the kind of unintentional fate you see in the movies. What NCT WISH sings about is more active, more direct, more certain—an assuredness that two people will find their way to each other, no matter how far apart. And they don’t just wait for that to happen but create the possibility themselves—by painting with a color they’ll both recognize.

Above all, the group’s third mini album takes a word like fate, and all the implications that accompany it, and turns it into an adorable little story. On “Surf,” hands clasped, they sweetly confess that they’re “already trapped / On this island called you,” and under the shimmering starlight on “Baby Blue,” they feel the empty space beside them and “ask the moon where you may be,” but they know it’s “inevitable like morning” that “you’ll / Come back to me.” They beg and plead in the cutest way for a “Cheat Code” so they can go see that person as quick as possible, but they already know that they can just use strokes of their shared “COLOR” and they’ll recognize one another immediately.

Falling in love fills you with a warmth that feels a lot like summer. The sounds that fill the album capture that summer feeling—a heart warmed by love. The funky dance track “Surf” conjures up images of cutting through the waves, while “Baby Blue,” an R&B/classical crossover, feels like a starlit summer night. The electronic pulse of “Cheat Code” bounces around like an impatient heart, and the similarly electronic “COLOR” mirrors the intense midday summer heat. The songs collectively flesh out the same season and the color of love that destiny splashes over it.

“Ode to Love”: How we help each other grow
Meeting someone new is a lot like encountering an entirely novel world. You learn about their preferences, their hobbies, and their habits, absorbing them bit by bit as you move through the relationship. NCT WISH’s first Korean studio album, “Ode to Love,” proves just how far the group has come, but it’s also a portrait of who they’ve become along the way. Who has that other person helped them to become, and what possibilities has that opened up?

The answer is there in the group’s musical range. The title track is a garage-infused dance song with the same feel-good vibes as songs they’ve excelled at before, but then there’s tracks like “Sticky,” with its unpredictable mix of bossa nova and hip hop, the jazzy hip hop of “Street (2AM),” and “Glow Up,” which blends boom bap with an electronic sound. All those songs radiate a sense of potential that the group had yet to show on their earlier albums. Like someone who’s taking in the wider world thanks to a new relationship, NCT WISH broadens their own musical horizons without losing what makes them who they are.

When you’re privy to a whole new world, you become a different person from who you were before. The group is filled with heartfelt resolve to meet that special someone and sing a song just for the two of them (“Ode to Love”), and the cheeky realization that, as odd a pair as they might seem to make, they’re absolutely perfect for each other (“Sticky”). But one thing remains constant through it all—a belief in the fact that they’ll still be together tomorrow, even after they’ve changed (“Voyage”).

“YO-I-DON! / BOY MEETS GIRL”: On seeing the 100% perfect girl
How many times in one life can someone experience a meeting that feels just like fate? Maybe meeting the 100% perfect person isn’t a matter of odds at all—maybe it’s a matter of believing, deep down in your heart, that they are 100% perfect. In other words, 100% perfect love doesn’t just appear—it’s a process of coming to see each other that way. It’s shaping your own destiny.

“BOY MEETS GIRL” shows what it means to adopt that attitude of choosing your own destiny, knocking on countless doors like it’s a treasure hunt. And when they finally meet the one, they call it the greatest event of the 21st century. Fate isn’t something handed to you, it’s something you choose. And that resolute refusal to revel in regret takes even clearer shape in “YO-I-DON!” Once you’ve decided to believe it’s in the stars to meet someone, all that’s left is to grab their hand without hesitation and take on the world together. They hold onto the certainty that whatever fate comes their way, the one they chose will win out in the end, and hold tight to the belief that they’ll be together forever.

NCT WISH’s youthful passion isn’t restricted to a single era—just look at their cover of TRF’s 1994 song “BOY MEETS GIRL,” or the retro vibe driving “YO-I-DON!” It’s not about recreating the past, but singing about the timelessness of youthful passion in an updated way. And so, just as NCT WISH is young today, they’ll still be young tomorrow.