Liam Payne, Zayn Malik Still Friends One Year After One Direction Split

Evidently, Liam Payne’s latest clock tattoo was a sign that he has time for everyone … including Zayn Malik.

As it appears, just as Zayn Malik is about to release his new solo album and simultaneously celebrate the one-year anniversary of his split from One Direction, Liam Payne is in the same city as him.

According to the Mirror, Liam Payne arrived in Los Angeles with his new girlfriend Cheryl Fernandez-Versini around mid-March. This puts him in close proximity to Zayn Malik in case he needs Liam Payne to celebrate the victory of his Mind of Mine album release.

However, fans may not be able to see pictures of Zayn Malik celebrating the release of his new album with any other members of One Direction besides Liam Payne.

Although most of the former and present members of One Direction are living in Los Angeles at the current time, Zayn Malik says that Liam Payne is the only person from his One Direction days that is still in touch.

Speaking with NME in an interview published around March 23, Zayn Malik said that Liam Payne is the only person that has been reaching out to him over the phone.

Adding to this, People indicates that, despite talking on the phone and being in the same cities most of the time, Zayn Malik and Liam Payne have not actually “reunited.”

Hollywood Life implies that the reason Zayn Malik has only heard back from Liam Payne is due to Zayn’s “bad blood” with the rest of One Direction.

Australia News Network points out that there may be more going on in those conversations on the phone between Zayn Malik and Liam Payne than fans first suspected. They go on to cite a Fader interview where Zayn Malik clearly states that he talks to Liam Payne on the phone … and they have confirmed they want to do a collaboration.

Is Liam Payne going to join Zayn Malik on stage in the near future? Or are they going to continue being long-distance friends in the same city?

Although it is unclear if Liam Payne and Zayn Malik are going to be collaborating or hanging out in person in Los Angeles, it is clear that Liam and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini are having fun.

Even more interesting, Liam Payne got a clock tattoo, according to ET Online, and his tattoo artist might be the one luring him back to Los Angeles. When posting on Instagram about giving Liam Payne the clock tattoo, Nikko Hurtado stated “[S]till need work top watch is just laid out not complete yet. Fun tattoo and fun sleeve to start. Can’t wait for the next sitting.”

For fans that are sad that Liam Payne being on vacation means less news about him, he may feel he has a good reason for it. On March 8, Liam Payne tweeted “Wow the internet is a dark place these days.”

A fan that responded asked Liam Payne “Is this why you barely tweet?” He responded with “Yeah I find pretty much anything I say is held against me kinda takes the fun out of it.”

Since that time, the only thing Liam Payne has posted on social media is about how Batman cost $410 million to make but made $1 billion in the box office.

As previously reported by the The Inquisitr, Liam Payne is also due to produce a solo career now that One Direction is on vacation. Thankfully, Teen Vogue reports that there were about eight seconds on Snapchat where some of Liam Payne’s potential solo music was aired.

Alternatively, this could be Liam Payne’s work for other musicians such as Jennifer Lopez, according to reports from The Sun.

Although Liam Payne does not have announcements about anything special happening in his future, Daily Mail did report around March 5 that Liam Payne and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini were “tipped” to be on the judges panel for the next season of X Factor.

Interestingly, the way that Liam Payne was “tipped” to be an X Factor judge was from a betting company. According to Express, Ladbrokes gambling company placed a bet for Liam Payne’s chances to become an X Factor judge, and the bettors seem to think he would be a likely choice.

For this reason, Ladbrokes has “tipped” Liam Payne to be one of the next X Factor judges.

[Picture by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images]