A night the sun and moon rose together — ONEWE's 'Neverland'

When night comes, the positions fixed during the day blur a little. Where you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to do. That blurring isn't only unsettling. While a position is unfixed, you could also go somewhere else.

The song ONEWE released on July 27 is about stepping off your spot for a while.

A title that means missing

The Korean title translates as 'we are missing'. In English it's 'Neverland'.

Missing is usually a word attached to bad news. But set the two titles side by side and the meaning shifts. That nobody knows where you are can also mean you've gone somewhere they can't find. Neverland was always that kind of place — a spot not on the map.

Where the sun and moon are together

The music video is animation. Inside a storybook frame the sun and moon hang together, and the members become Peter Pan, an explorer, a mermaid, a forest guardian and a fairy.

The sun and moon rising together feels like the core of it. In reality only one of them is up — it's either day or night. A sky holding both means the time hasn't been decided. Which is to say nothing has ended yet.

The roles are interesting too. Peter Pan, an explorer, a mermaid, a forest guardian, a fairy. All five are beings who leave somewhere or guard somewhere. Not one of them is settled, and that says something about where this song stands.

How you get back what you forgot

What the song is doing is pulling back out an innocence you'd forgotten. But innocence is an awkward word to handle. Say it to an adult and it mostly produces embarrassment.

Which is probably why they chose animation. Adults in fairy costumes in live action would be awkward, but inside a drawing it's natural. Putting one layer on deliberately in order to say something sincere. Less about dodging the embarrassment than about speaking without it.

What we lose growing up doesn't seem to be innocence itself, but the belief that being innocent is fine. Those moments still come; we just hurry past them each time. This song catches one and stretches it out over a few minutes.

Tonight, try it like this

Leave one light on, and keep the screen on. This song arrives better watched with the picture than heard as sound alone.

It's also worth remembering this sits as the middle chapter of a trilogy — departed from the point, not yet arrived at the plane. A position in transit. 'Missing' fits that spot well, since it means having left without having landed.

And forget for a moment where you were today. You can go back to your place tomorrow. Nothing happens if you're off the map for a few hours. Just for tonight, let's be 'Neverland'.