The members of One Direction are awfully close.

Just look to the photo on the left of Harry Styles with his hand placed firmly on the crotch of bandmate Liam Payne. This isn’t an isolated incident. There are plenty of photos out there of the guys crotch grabbing and bum slapping. But what’s it all about?

Mix 101.5/Orlando spoke to Niall Horan and Zayn Malik before a recent show and got to the bottom of it.

Presenting them with photographic evidence of Styles covering Payne’s crotch with his hand Malik remarked, “That’s a bit extreme, that one is.”

Inspecting the photo even further Horan added, “Harry’s got some next level crotch. He’s got some crotch bulge going on there.”

When looking at another photo with one of the guys cupping Horan’s butt Horan asked Malik, “That one is just to make the girls scream isn’t it?”

Malik agreed stating, “We do it when we’re taking photos. We make each other laugh, grabbing each other’s bums.”

- C.J. Robinson MIX 105.1/Orlando