Justin Bieber, king of collaborations-turned-summer bops, released another new track this afternoon with BloodPop, entitled "Friends." It's a catchy song about life after a breakup. And a look at the lyrics suggests there could be a couple of nods to both Selena Gomez and the kind of relationship Bieber aspires to have with her.

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Bieber wrote the song with Warner/Chappell Music senior VP and co-head of A&R Katie Vinten, producer BloodPop, and Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, who have written songs with Gomez in the past. It's possible that shared experience with Michaels and Tranter played into the themes in the songwriting. But still, here are the lyrics, via Genius, with possible Gomez references noted:

Verse 1:

I was wonderin' 'bout your mama

Did she get that job she wanted?

Selena Gomez's mom Mandy Teefey and Justin Bieber's manager set up a first meeting between the two way back in 2009, so Bieber has known Teefey from the very beginning. Teefey is no longer Gomez's manager, but she and Gomez worked together producing 13 Reasons Why—a project they spent years developing before Netflix took it.

So that car that gave her problems

I'm just curious 'bout her, honest

Pre-Chorus:

Girl, you wonderin' why I've been callin'?

Like I've got ulterior motives

Gomez and Bieber have been on-off talking to each other since their final breakup in 2014. Bieber told Us Weekly in November 2015 that he considered Gomez to be his "homie."

"[We don't talk] every day, but every now and then she hits up my phone. Well, I hit hers too." In September 2016, a month after their big Instagram fallout, a source told Us Weekly that Gomez had changed her number and told people not to give it to him.

Relations have thawed in the last couple months though, with Gomez recently complimenting Bieber on a radio interview in June (more on that later). Plus, Gomez herself has admitted she goes through a lot of phone numbers—as many major celebrities do—so it's unclear whether Bieber has her current one.

No, we didn't end this so good

Gomez and Bieber came to a pretty ugly and public end for good last August, when the two argued in Bieber's Instagram comments about his flaunting his relationship with then-girlfriend Sofia Richie, and then lashing out against fans criticizing Richie. "If you can't handle the hate, then stop posting pictures of your girlfriend lol," Gomez wrote. "It should be special between you two only. Don't be mad at your fans. They love you."

Bieber responded, "It's funny to see people that used me for attention and still try to point the finger this way. Sad. All love." Gomez posted on Snapchat the next morning that she regretted her remarks.

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But you know we had something so good

Bieber has posted several throwback pics of him and Gomez since they've broken up. He captioned On one of them kissing, "feels." She liked the image and commented back "perfect." For a while, that interchange would become Instagram's most liked photo.

Chorus:

So I'm wondering, can we still be friends? (oh-oh)

Can we still be friends? (oh-oh)

Doesn't have to end

And if it ends, can we be friends?

It's not known whether Gomez and Bieber are friends now, but they at the very least haven't been spotted together. The Biebs has also made it clear he's not a fan of her dating Abel Tesfaye, The Weeknd.

But both have said in interviews that they will always care about one another. Bieber told Access Hollywood in November 2015 that Gomez, "...is someone I love dearly. I'm never going to stop loving her. I'm never going to stop checking in on her. I don't think if you end a relationship, you should end that, unless it was super toxic and you guys were hurting each other physically or mentally." Gomez told W in February 2016 that while she couldn't do their on-off relationship anymore, "I care about his health and well-being." So there's always potential.

Post-Chorus:

Can we be friends?

Can we be friends?

Can we be friends?

Verse 2:

Wonderin' if you got a body

To hold you tight since I left

When Gomez and The Weeknd got together, Bieber made three petty remarks about the artist, who she's now been with for six months. TMZ first reported he considered Gomez to be using The Weeknd for publicity; Bieber later called The Weeknd's music "whack" to paparazzi; and then he trolled Tesfaye on his Instagram story.

The Weeknd seemingly responded to these actions in his Nav collaboration "Some Way" in February, where he taunted about taking Bieber's girl. "Oh yeah, yeah, I just hit a lick and I know you feelin' some way/(nah, nah nah nah, nah nah nah)/I just took that chick, and I know you feelin' some way, oh yeah/She just want a n–a like me, you feelin' some way, way, way, yeah."

Wonderin' if you think about me

Actually, don't answer that

Gomez has given some indication she's thought about Bieber this year: She briefly liked and then unliked a Jelena shot in February:

And during a radio interview in June, she complimented Biebe , praising his Manchester benefit concert performance. "I thought Justin did great. It was really beautiful," she said.

Pre-Chorus:

Now you wonderin' why I've been callin'?

Like I've got ulterior motives

No, we didn't end this so good

But you know we had something so good

Chorus:

So I'm wondering, can we still be friends? (oh-oh)

Can we still be friends? (oh-oh)

Doesn't have to end

And if it ends, can we be friends?

Can we be friends?

Can we be friends?

And if it ends, can we be friends?

Pre-Chorus:

Now you wonderin' why I've been callin'?

Like I've got ulterior motives

No, we didn't end this so good

But you know we had something so good

Chorus:

I'm wondering, can we still be friends? (oh-oh)

Can we still be friends? (oh-oh)

Doesn't have to end

And if it ends, can we be friends?

From: ELLE US
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Alyssa Bailey
Senior News and Strategy Editor

Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.