As is common with any idol group, NCT WISH has been singing about love since their debut in 2024. However, on their 2026 mini album I SPY, the Japanese-Korean boy band’s interest in romance takes on greater depth. On “I SPY,” attraction remains light, youthful, and danceable, similar to how it was depicted on NCT WISH’s “BOY MEETS GIRL” cover or 2026’s “Ode to Love.” But I SPY also makes strides to give the mostly twentysomething members’ perspective on love a more timeless quality. On the R&B track “Hubble Time,” a relationship is measured not in years but in the fading of a star’s light. I SPY has its moments of adolescent bombast, for instance in the rock ’n’ roll chorus of “We Own This Street,” but it eventually all comes back to amorous devotion. The album-ending ballad “Like a Dream” samples the Carpenters’ 1970 hit “Close to You,” linking the Tokyo-based group’s music with a pop song that has personified romance for decades.