Remove active class / JS Navigation

I have been trying for hours now, but can not figure my way out of this one. The Menu contains a regular submenu which gets an “active” class. Great, done with foreach. But how can I remove the active class when the user clicks anywhere in the document?

If I put an id on the body that removes the “active” class with an event listener, it will be removed without being present. Should I use “contains()”? Tried but con not get it to work either. Code is as plain as possible. Thank you for any help!!!

Link to Codepen: https://codepen.io/jaeiko/pen/OJOZRgm

 <div id="nav__menu">
    <ul class="navigation__desktop">
   
      <li> <a href="#"> MenuItemOne</a></li>
      <li> <a class="drop-down-items sub" href="#"> MenuItemTwo/Sub</a>
        <ul class="navigation__desktop__dropdown">
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuOne</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuTwo</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuThree</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuFour</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuFive</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuSix</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuSeven</a></li>
        </ul>
      </li>
      <li> <a href="#"> MenuItemTwo</a></li>

      <li> <a class="drop-down-items sub" href="#"> MenuItemThree/Sub</a>
        <ul id="service-submenu" class="navigation__desktop__dropdown">
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuEight</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuNine</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuTen</a></li>          
        </ul>
      </li>
      <li> <a href="#"> MenuItemFour</li></a>

    </ul>
  </div>


////// SCSS


.navigation__desktop {
    display: flex;
    justify-content: space-evenly;
    position: relative;


    a {
        padding: 0.5rem;
        display: block;
        text-decoration: none;
        
        font-weight: bold;
    font-family: sans-serif;
    }
}

.navigation__desktop__dropdown {
    position: absolute;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    background-color: white;
    border-radius: 0.1rem;
    box-shadow: 0 0 10px #718096;

    display: none;
    text-transform: none;
}

.active {
    display: block;
}

li {
  list-style-type: none;
}

.sub {
  color: red;
}


/////////////  JS


/// Variables

let dropDownItems = document.querySelectorAll(".drop-down-items");
let dropDownUL = document.querySelectorAll(".navigation__desktop__dropdown"); 

/// Dropdown

dropDownItems.forEach(item => {          
        item.addEventListener("click", (e) => {
            e.preventDefault();    
            let showMenuItem = item.nextElementSibling;
         
            showMenuItem.classList.add("active");             
            
        })       
    })

  
 


  [1]: https://codepen.io/jaeiko/pen/OJOZRgm

Answer

In your case i would create a global click event and check if the clicked element is a link, if not remove the active class for others.

/// Variables

let dropDownItems = document.querySelectorAll(".drop-down-items");
let dropDownUL = document.querySelectorAll(".navigation__desktop__dropdown"); 

/// Dropdown

dropDownItems.forEach(item => {          
  item.addEventListener("click", (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();    
    let showMenuItem = item.nextElementSibling;
    showMenuItem.classList.add("active");
   })       
})

// Add a global click handler
window.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
   if (e.target.tagName !== 'A') {
     dropDownItems.forEach((item) => {
       let shownMenuItem = item.nextElementSibling;
       if (shownMenuItem.classList.contains('active')) {
         shownMenuItem.classList.remove('active');
       }               
     });
   }
});

.navigation__desktop {
    display: flex;
    justify-content: space-evenly;
    position: relative;
}

a {
    padding: 0.5rem;
    display: block;
    text-decoration: none;  
    font-weight: bold;
    font-family: sans-serif;
}


.navigation__desktop__dropdown {
    position: absolute;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: column;
    background-color: white;
    border-radius: 0.1rem;
    box-shadow: 0 0 10px #718096;

    display: none;
    text-transform: none;
}

.active {
    display: block;
}

li {
    list-style-type: none;
}

.sub {
    color: red;
}

 <div id="nav__menu">
    <ul class="navigation__desktop">
   
      <li> <a href="#"> MenuItemOne</a></li>
      <li> <a class="drop-down-items sub" href="#"> MenuItemTwo/Sub</a>
        <ul class="navigation__desktop__dropdown">
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuOne</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuTwo</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuThree</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuFour</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuFive</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuSix</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuSeven</a></li>
        </ul>
      </li>
      <li> <a href="#"> MenuItemTwo</a></li>

      <li> <a class="drop-down-items sub" href="#"> MenuItemThree/Sub</a>
        <ul id="service-submenu" class="navigation__desktop__dropdown">
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuEight</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuNine</a></li>
          <li> <a href="#"> SubMenuTen</a></li>          
        </ul>
      </li>
      <li> <a href="#"> MenuItemFour</li></a>

    </ul>
  </div>