NCT Dream’s Mark Lee recently opened up about the group’s “pretty intimate” dynamic and his role as the leader.

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In an interview with Teen Vogue published on May 11, Lee said that the boyband – which comprises members from Korea and China – have a close relationship with one another because of their shared experience as K-pop trainees.

“What we have is pretty intimate, and it’s also genuine,” he said before joking that his role as the group’s leader has also made him an “approachable punching bag for the team”. Lee, who was born and raised in Canada, added that the band managed to forge a close bond despite each member’s different cultural backgrounds.

“But all jokes aside, I feel like my role for this team… Yes, I am the oldest and I am the leader but I’m also… In Korea, in the culture, age is very important, but we’ve come so far that all those borders kind of just vanished and we’re all pretty much friends, and I guess I’m just a friend of theirs too.”

Lee added that NCT Dream’s future as a band remains unknown, though he’s confident that they’ll be “growing continuously, endlessly”. “What the future holds is something that we will never know, but we always do try to prepare during the present, and so with whatever time we have currently and with whatever album, or whatever stage, or whatever piece of music it may be, we’re willing to make sure that we have the next one coming too.”

NCT Dream – which is a subunit of the boyband NCT – made their long-awaited return on May 10 with their first-ever studio album ‘Hot Sauce’, which dropped alongside a whimsical video for its title track. The album also marked their first project featuring all seven original band members. Lee had originally left the group in 2018, as per the unit’s rotational graduation system.