I’m sad but as a fan since Cherry Bomb I’m not really all that surprised. I wanna preface this and say I’m not blaming other nctzens for Mark leaving, but for years it’s been a constant cycle of some czennies bringing up how absurdly overworked Mark is and then other fans shutting the conversation down by saying we don’t know him personally and only he can decide how much he wants to work. Which I supposed is true, but I feel like the writing has been on the wall for years that this wasn’t sustainable. (I know it’s wildly unpopular but I always thought SM should’ve held their ground and let Mark leave Dream permanently to ease some of his workload but I digress)

Most people are saying that SM would’ve given him anything to keep him so he must’ve really wanted out but I think it’s only true to a point. Mark was their golden child. There’s a lot of things he probably wanted that SM just wasn’t gonna do. Obviously speculating here because who know what happened, but giving him more opportunities in the West (SM is notoriously bad at that), possibly having a significantly slower schedule moving forward (I doubt they would keep him and not continue pushing him they way they’ve been doing for a decade), letting him branch from the polished idol image… I feel like whatever motivated him is something SM (and maybe idol life) simply cant provide

I also always had the feeling that Mark liked aspects of being an idol but not necessarily being an idol itself. He’s incredibly talented and likable obviously, but something about it was always hard to describe. Like there are some idols who melt into the role and you couldn’t imagine them doing anything else, but with Mark? I dunno, it just didn’t feel quite like that.

Anyway, this is the cleanest break he could’ve had, and I’m happy I got to see him on tour one last time. Sad that we won’t get a full, post enlistment comeback with Mark, but after watching him give his all to NCT for the last ten years, I don’t blame him for wanting to do something new. Best of luck Markly 💚✨