This is so clearly a TK composition, and so it doesn't really remind me of her early music, but it does take me back to late 90s J -pop
That's just TK's composition style though.
I really like it though and it's probably my favorite since we are the queens, which ended up being one of the my favorite ayu songs.
The one thing about TK's composition style and many of his tracks for ayu is that it sometimes feels like the verse, bridge and chorus are a bit disjointed, and in this case especially the bridge is drawn out a lot to the extent where it's a bit difficult to keep tension throughout, especially for people who are used today's pop music I guess. (The first chorus starts at 1:24, which is very, very late for any pop track and it's the same for many (but not all) of his tracks for ayu). Some of itmay be ayu's decision too though to fit the lyrics and musical story telling the way she likes it. In any event, TK's compositions are more melody-driven than most popular music today (both Western and K-pop) and he relies a lot on key changes to create tension. So this song is basically what I've come to expect from TK for ayu. Sometimes it works really well, but sometimes it makes the song feel flat and dragged out. And it makes the arranger's job more difficult I think because instead of coming up with one catchy hook that can be repeated again and again, he or she has to figure out a way to make it interesting in different ways throughout the song. I think they did a great job with Dreamed a Dream, but I also think this song could've benefited from cutting half of the first bridge and maybe the first verse too, but that might've messed up the lyrics!