The nature of low-lying scalar and axial-vector charmed mesons has long been debated, specifically whether they are best explained as hadronic molecules or compact tetraquark systems. These two scenarios exhibit quite different features for the accessible $SU(3)$ multiplets in the scalar and axial-vector sectors. To resolve this debate, we performed $N_f=3+1$ lattice simulations and calculated the energy
levels of the $SU(3)$ $[6]$ and
$[\overline{15}]$ multiplets for both the scalar and axial-vector mesons in an $SU(3)$ flavor-symmetric setting.
In both sectors we find attractive states for the [6] and repulsive interactions for the $[\overline{15}]$. This is consistent with the hadronic molecule picture, but not the compact tetraquark picture which predicts a low-lying $[\overline{15}]$ states in the axial-vector sector but not in the scalar sector.