Reaction from fans to Zayn Malik quitting One Direction was as swift as it was sad.
Within minutes of Malik confirming his departure from Britain’s new fab five yesterday, Twitter was overrun with messages of shock and despair.
But the reaction from Malik’s now-former colleagues hasn’t exactly been as dour or sentimental, at least not from the earliest indications.
Liam Payne threw some shade at Zayn on Wednesday by covering his face in a photo.
Following a performance in Jakarta last night, Harry Styles wrote “All the love as always” on Twitter, seemingly sending a message to 1D fans … and not Mailk.
Two hours later, Payne wrote: "So glad to be in bed after a long and strange 24 hours."
We may be reading too much into these responses, but no One Direction member has directly addressed Malik since his abrupt exit from the ensemble.
You’d expect to see a couple Tweets in support of the singer, wouldn’t you? A "We’ll miss you, buddy!" here or a "It’s been a great run, best of luck!" there.
Instead, Styles and Payne didn’t bother to even mention Zayn in their Tweets.
Meanwhile, neither of the other two members, Niall Horan or Louis Tomlinson, have made any mention of the major shakeup within the group whatosever.
Via Facebook, Malik said his reason for leaving was because he wants "to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight."
That could be true. But might some tension within One Direction have played a role as well?