Mark Lee — the artist and rapper best known as a core member of the global supergroup NCT — released his new single “My Friend” Thursday, marking a pivotal departure from the glossy mechanics of mainstream pop and laying the cornerstone for a new independent chapter. The track serves as his inaugural release under Upper Room, a creative company founded by Lee. Rather than leaning on maximalist production, “My Friend” leans comfortably into restraint. Built over a nostalgic, lingering guitar loop, the mid-tempo pop track wrestles with a timeless late-summer question: What does the highest form of love actually look like? Mark took the reins across every stage of the track's creation, contributing to the songwriting, composition and arrangement. The result is less of a commercial product and more of a personal diary entry — a gentle reflection on closing one chapter of life to step quietly into the next. That ethos carries directly into the song's accompanying music video. Steering entirely clear of computer graphics or artificial staging, director Gus Black — known for his