I confessed to my crush and he told me it's not a no but he needs some time to process it
Disclaimer that this might seem childish for some people!
Hi everyone,
I (23F) and my crush (22M) have been friends through mutual friends for around 6 months now.
The thing is, I didn’t have a crush on him from the beginning. I just loved teasing him and seeing his reactions. I’m a very huggy person, so I hug pretty much everyone in our group and kiss the girls on the cheek. It wasn’t until around 2 months ago that my crush somehow began reciprocating me being touchy with him (intertwining our fingers, patting me, or hugging me first), and I began to fall for him.
Some of my friends started telling me that if I didn’t want to end up in a situationship, then I should ask him why he’s doing that, or just straight up ask him out. But honestly, I quite liked the pace we were at.
Then yesterday, during our usual get together, he kissed me on the lips. I immediately thought that if I didn’t ask him, I might regret it.
So I went to him when he was alone, took his hand, and asked if he wanted to go out with me. He looked kind of dumbfounded, and I panicked and told him he could just say yes or no. At that point I was already letting go of his hand and couldn’t even look at him anymore.
He asked me if I was joking, and he also seemed kind of panicked. So I told him it was okay if it was a no. Then he answered with: “No no, it’s definitely not a no… but I’m not sure…”
After that, we started talking about stuff, like since when I had a crush on him. I also told him that while I hug everyone, I’ve never done this kind of thing with anyone else in our friend group, because apparently he thought I had a crush on someone else.
At that point I was kind of letting everything out, including my insecurities and stuff. He answered that there are definitely no girls other than me in his life right now. He also said that he liked our current dynamic because he felt happy seeing me happy, and that he doesn’t want me to hate him.
I told him I wouldn’t hate him for this, but that I’d probably stop being remotely physical with him and just stick to saying hi and goodbye in the future.
We weren’t really getting anywhere after that. He kept muttering things like “omg, I’m so sorry, I can’t believe this…” and seemed worried because he thought I was about to cry.
So I finally asked him if it was a yes, a no, or if he needed time. He repeated that it’s definitely not a no. But yes, he needs time.
So we left it at that.
What do I do now?
FYI: he’s pretty introverted, and I kind of suspect he’s a virgin (I am too).