EJS loops not rendering html tags

I am a beginner in coding using JS, NODE, and EJS.

I used fs.readdir to get some files as an array then to loop it and display filenames as an html list tag. I can see my files using console log. nothing is showing when I actually included html tags inside the loop.
here is my code for the div where my loop is placed.

<div class="containerAdmin2">
  <h2>UPDATE PAGE</h2>
  <h3>Select a File to update</h3>
  <ul>
    <li>testonly</li>
  <%
    var filePath = locals.path; 
    fs.readdir(filePath, (err, files) => {
    files.forEach(fileName => {
    %>
    /*html tag here, does not render*/
    <%
    console.log(fileName); //This line produces filename results i need
  });
  });
  %>
</ul>
</div>

I tried different EJS tags, nothing worked. thank you in advance.