It’s the summer of 2015, and One Direction are tucked away in Los Angeles, splitting their days between the recording studio and a rented house in the Hills while they finish their upcoming album Made in the A.M.—still a work-in-progress, still secret, and still causing far more stress than any of them will admit out loud. Zayn is still in the band, more relaxed and creatively plugged-in than he’s been in years, and the group is riding on that rare mix of exhaustion and excitement that comes right before something big.