Yo, Biebs, Can You Get Me Harry Styles' Number?

It's a question that one could easily assume the answer to, given the few degrees of separation that lie between these teeny bopper icons: have Harry Styles and Justin Bieber met? Instead, should I be asking how could they not have met? Since Haylor and Jelena both gestated around the same time in 2012, the prospect of Bieber and Styles never meeting would be inconceivable.

Welp, we all guessed it! Harry Styles and Justin Bieber had a bonafide friendship — OK, maybe just a bonafide acquaintanceship — for a while there in 2012-2013. Though I can't say whether or not their bond has endured in recent years.

Two years ago, Bieber told Live Magazine that he hung out with the the whole One Direction crew. Glad that I had money on this! It all began when Bieber met the boy band in 2012 when he came to perform on their season of The X Factor, as he told Radio Disney in 2012. "I met two of them, I think," Bieber said with perfectly practiced nonchalance as if he doesn't remember locking eyes with Styles from down a long corridor, noticing his many necklaces and thinking, "That swag... Those necklaces... MUST MAKE FRIENDS!!"

At one point, they had become close enough for Bieber to identify Styles as the friend you don't bring home to mom, for fear of mom being seduced. Ohhhhh-kay... Didn't know that was a thing 'til just now. According to The Mirror, Selena Gomez said that Bieber was consciously keeping Styles, a potential BFF, away from his mother because of Styles' taste for older women. She reportedly said,

Both me and Justin still have really hot mums, and Justin was like, "Harry might have become one of my best buddies, but with his record we need to keep him away from our mums."

I'm guessing that Styles probably keeps Bieber away from his own mom as well, just because of the not-so-great influence thing.

You'll have a hard time finding a picture of Bieber and Styles' together though, which makes me think this match was short-lived. Thankfully, at some point fans decided that the power of Photoshop would have to do for bringing the duo together.

In fact, an entire Instagram account devoted to their relationship exists.

Which, as we all know, is the ultimate test of a friendship's value.

Images: Getty Images