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Jelena, in one form or another, is back. For better or for worse.

As you can imagine, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber’s romantic bike rides didn’t just start up overnight.

Reportedly, Justin has been trying to worm his way back into Selena’s life ever since news broke of her kidney transplant. That news awoke something within him. …

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Though this Bieber development might make you think that this was the other way around, The Weeknd broke up with Selena Gomez.

He reportedly ended things by phone after their relationship began to fizzle out, he believed, over the summer.

We don’t think that it’s an unfair interpretation of that to say that The Weeknd wasn’t so excited about their relationship when Selena Gomez got her kidney transplant and was on bedrest for a couple of months to recover.

It’s not like they were married, but … does it rub anyone else the wrong way that The Weeknd was apparently fine with their relationship up until Selena’s illness became inconvenient?

(To be fair, it’s been reported that another factor was their conflicting work schedules, but … still)

One way or the other, though, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have reunited, after Justin managed to arrange a meet-up after calling Selena’s mom.

Even though Selena Gomez’s family can’t stand Bieber or the horse he rode in on, Selena’s mom apparently wanted to leave the choice up to Selena.

And … now we’re where we are today.

But there’s more to this story than we thought.

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It was just under a month ago when we told you that Justin and Selena might get back together, if as friends.

But TMZ reports that Justin has been trying to reconnect with Selena for quite a while.

Justin didn’t just have to convince her mom that he and Selena should talk again.

He had to convince Selena, too.

That took some doing.

Not only does Selena’s family consider him "vile" and blame him for a serious bout of depression that she suffered, but Selena and Justin were estranged for a long time.

Remember when Justin Bieber was dating Sofia Richie?

Well, Justin’s fans gave him a hard time about posting so much about the relationship. (There were other issues, including Sofia’s age at the time)

Justin fired back angrily, because he was, at the time, kind of an out-of-control douchebag.

Selena Gomez spoke up to defend Justin’s fans, because celebs shouldn’t really lash out at their fans — for business reasons, and because it’s a dickish thing to do.

After that, well … they just didn’t speak. It was better that way.

Selena Gomez at a Premiere
(Getty)

What prompted Justin’s change of heart?

TMZ reports that it was Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant.

If you’re thinking "yeah, obviously," there’s more to it than we’d all first realized.

This wasn’t just a scenario of Justin reconnecting with his ex to see how she’s doing, though that was also part of it.

When Justin learned of Selena’s transplant, sources close to him describe that he had something of an epiphany about Selena and how much she means to him.

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It absolutely should not have taken Selena nearly dying (kidney failure due to Lupus and then major surgery is, let’s be clear, a near-death experience or two) for Justin to realize Selena’s value.

She’s beautiful, she’s kind, and she’s one of the greatest musical talents in the history of humankind.

Selena already gave Justin some of the best years of her youth, but now he’s coming back for more.

Maybe Justin will make her happy, though. Even if he is now sporting super ugly body tattoos.

By the way, some rumors have been floating around that there’s some sort of Jelena music collaboration in the works. TMZ says that they haven’t heard anything verifiable about that.