eight

IU wrote 'eight' with Suga of BTS, who also produced the track and features on it. The title refers to her age at the time, twenty-eight, and the song adopts the form of what she describes as a short novel, confessing through a fictional character and metaphors rather than the direct address of her earlier work. El Capitxn shares the writing credit. The production leans into pop rock with a nostalgic cast. IU sings of loss and the difficulty of letting go, the lyrics moving between images of an orange sun, a small island, and memories that refuse to fade. Suga's verse extends the island metaphor, framing farewells as disaster alerts and eternity as a sandcastle, before promising a reunion across time. The recurring refrain 'forever young' anchors the song's resistance to fixed endings. IU has noted that the recurring feeling of her twenty-eighth year was one of lethargy and longing for that orange island, whether drawn from personal emotion or the wider atmosphere of hard times.