My best guy friend-who I have feelings for-doesn’t seem to feel the same way, but wants to keep hanging out.

So let me explain: I’m a 24 year old female. 2 years ago, I met my guy friend in college, he just transferred to my school from a university in Italy. He’s a bit introverted and I’m outgoing and social. I befriended him and soon we had the same group of friends. It was quickly evident that him and I have a lot of the same interests: history, international affairs, learning languages, travelling, etc.

About a year ago, I started developing feelings for him, but at this point I was very inexperienced with dating and romantic/sexual relationships. I grew up unattractive so I have been conditioned to expect rejection, and I graduated in 2 months, so I kept my feelings to myself. One of our mutual friends knew I liked my guy friend, and was willing to ‘probe’ my crush and see if he might like me back. I told him he could. When he did, my crush admitted he knew I liked him but ‘only saw me as a friend’ and ‘didn’t wanna ruin the friendship’, so he didn’t say anything. I believed my friend, but doubted deep down if this is what my crush really said, bc I didn’t hear my crush’s response for myself. Me and my crush kept interacting like friends after this and didn’t mention that I liked him.

Fast forward a few months, I graduate and my crush goes back to Italy for the summer. Him and I keep in touch all summer and I get a job in my college town. He comes back in the fall and I continue hanging out with my college friend group, including him. From august to September, we hangout all the time and make memories. I decided to take a gap year to teach English in Italy and left the US in October (when my teaching contract began). Though this entire process he supported me emotionally. We got closer bc I could relate to him as an Italian living in my country and he could relate to me as an American living in Italy. When I left the US, he messaged me asking if I ever had feelings for him, and I admitted I did. He said he only ever saw me as a friend.

In march, I visited my college friends in the US for a couple weeks and we did a trip to Texas. Fast toward a few weeks, and my guy friend is back in Italy for the summer and I have a couple months left living here. We are only an hour away from each other, so I have hung out a couple times with him. When I saw him again, my feelings for him resurfaced but the last thing he told me was that he only saw me as a friend. So I didn’t tell him, initially. After a month, I decided to be honest, and not go through a friend to tell him how I felt. I message him and told him I enjoyed his company, talking with him and that I still like him as more than a friend. He thanked me to being honest and said he enjoys my company too, but he didn’t directly say he doesn’t feel the same way.

Since my confession, we have hung out twice and none of us have mentioned it. He tells me everything and recently told me about girls who keep standing him up for dates. He told me he thought my friend here was attractive. All to indicate he doesn’t feel the same way back. It sometimes frustrates me that he doesn’t seem to feel the same way and all my other friends say I need to move on. I care about him deeply and we have a great friendship – the issue is I see potential for us to build something more on this but he just sees me as a good friend.

In the fall, I’m attending the same university in the US and it’s been implied our friend group will continue hanging out. I don’t know if i should continue being his friend, hoping that he changes his mind one day. Or try to get over my feelings and preserve the friendship. Or cut him off completely. Has anyone been friends with someone that knew had feeling for him, but didn’t outright address it? Thanks for the advice x