Niall Horan Scolds Fan for Photographing Him While He Slept on an Airplane: This Is ‘Unreal’

Some moments are meant to be private.

Niall Horan lashed out at a fan via social media Monday, for photographing him while he slept on an airplane.

“I think this s— is unreal,” Horan, 22, wrote on Twitter. “I mean if you can’t sleep on a plane without people taking photos of you, what can u do.”

Alongside the note, Horan shared a screen grab of the fan’s original post, which included the picture in question.

The fan’s caption read, “And to sum up the PERFECT European adventure, I sat directly next to Niall from one Direction for 9 hours on my flight home from London last night. He was sick and asked for no selfies, but here is a pic I snapped when he was sleeping lol he was so friendly!”

Horan’s unsavory fan encounter comes after the former One Direction member received praise from Simon Cowell for his loyalty amid the group’s temporary disbanding.

“Niall is the most loyal,” Cowell told PEOPLE last week. “We are expecting to announce something soon with him. I’ve always known he’s loyal.”

The other boy banders – who were discovered by Cowell – have mostly stuck to the X Factor judge’s Syco Music, which is owned by Sony. Liam Payne, however, recently signed a solo deal with Universal Music.

Cowell said he “always knew” the boys would try creating successful careers outside of One Direction, but he had hoped “that everyone would do it with us, but one flew out of the nest.”