The reality star posted a selfie from 2022 that featured herself, Karlie, Khloe and W Magazine's Sara Moonves ... who were all cozied up around this dude named Derek Blasberg ... just another socialite.

It was his birthday and she posted a series of photos to honor his big day -- including this throwback pic.

It might seem like NBD on its face, but considering the history here between Kim, Karlie and Taylor -- who recently took a fresh shot at Kim K -- ya gotta read between the lines.

Fact is ... Karlie and Kim are known to not be on great terms with Tay Tay these days -- Kim's a no-brainer, obviously ... but Karlie actually used to be real close buds with T-Swift once upon a time ... that is, until they weren't.

This all dates back to about 2018 or so when they had some kind of falling out -- which seemed to be related to Karlie hanging out with one-time Taylor foe Katy Perry ... this after being super tight with Taylor in the mid-2010s, when she used to run in her squad regularly.

Of course, since then ... Katy's become cool with Taylor anew -- and we even saw Karlie hit up one of Taylor's concerts last year ... so it's hard to say if their relationship is still icy or not at this point.

Still, the fact that Kim is definitely not cool with Taylor and went out of her way to throw this photo up in the midst of her renewed feud with T-Swift certainly raises some eyebrows. Frankly, an old shot of herself with Karlie kinda screams ... we don't like you!

As you know ... Taylor breathed new life into her years-long beef with Kim, subliminally labeling her a bully in one of her new tracks -- dating back to the whole "Famous" saga.

Kim hasn't said anything about it explicitly since Taylor's new album dropped last week -- but this could be interpreted as a subtle jab at arch nemesis ... with the message possibly being, I'm with your old BFF, Taylor. Take that!