My crush likes me but we can’t be together.

Okay so here it is.
There’s this guy in my class who is really good looking and I ended up developing a really big crush on him but because of religious differences we can’t be together anyway and I did accept this. We sit near each other and I had a crush on him for about a month and spoke to him a few times after class but didn’t really do much else. Obviously I also managed to find him on instagram and I followed him and a week later followed him on snapchat because he had his username on his IG bio. I did all of this without thinking much of it or that anything would ever happen between us.
About a week or two later, I was out and honestly by mistake sent him a boomerang (not of me or my face) on IG. I was actually panicking because i didn’t mean to so i just explained how i did it by mistake. From that day on we started talking until a few days later he moved the conversation to snapchat and we carried on until the next day. Then the conversation ended and i thought he was just normally talking and wouldn’t try to talk to me again until he messaged me randomly on snapchat again. We’ve been talking now for over a month (with maybe a week gap in between and sometimes a few days when conversations have ended). It was all innocent, we just chatted about random things and didn’t send pictures of ourselves to each other or anything but i never thought he would actually want to talk to me. Then one day he started to flirt with me, which really caught me off guard but i just laughed it off and carried on with our conversation. He didn’t do it again until a couple of days ago. Through this time of talking i realised i didn’t actually have romantic feelings for him which i suppose was for the best since we can’t be together anyway, but i’m nearly certain that he has feelings for me,
or at least has a crush on me. I began to feel really bad for talking to him but i liked him as a friend and i didn’t want to lose that but i didn’t want to lead him on either. I think i secretly still have romantic feelings for him, despite trying to convince myself (and my friends) that i don’t. I feel restless when he doesn’t talk to me and i’m really attracted to him but sometimes i do think that maybe i’m just looking for someone to be attached to and i maybe just like the idea of him. Anyway i’m just feeling really confused about what i’m feeling and frankly upset that i need to try and distance myself from him, for both of our sakes. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

I think you should talk to this friend of yours about this problem (obviously it is a problem if you feel upset about it), the best thing is to talk, learn what he feels on his part. If he actually does like you, it still shouldnt be much of a problem on your part, bc he has to accept that you dont have feelings for him, cuz you just cant force feelings (unless you do realize that you have feelings for him, then thats a totally different situation). I personally dont think you should keep distance, because that doesnt do anything except cause feelings to get hurt.
You are your own person, i understand religious policies are very important (my own religion is very important to me), but you know what they say, rules are meant to be broken. And there is no right way to feel, (again) you are your own person
good luck

Okay so here it is.
There’s this guy in my class who is really good looking and I ended up developing a really big crush on him but because of religious differences we can’t be together anyway and I did accept this. We sit near each other and I had a crush on him for about a month and spoke to him a few times after class but didn’t really do much else. Obviously I also managed to find him on instagram and I followed him and a week later followed him on snapchat because he had his username on his IG bio. I did all of this without thinking much of it or that anything would ever happen between us.
About a week or two later, I was out and honestly by mistake sent him a boomerang (not of me or my face) on IG. I was actually panicking because i didn’t mean to so i just explained how i did it by mistake. From that day on we started talking until a few days later he moved the conversation to snapchat and we carried on until the next day. Then the conversation ended and i thought he was just normally talking and wouldn’t try to talk to me again until he messaged me randomly on snapchat again. We’ve been talking now for over a month (with maybe a week gap in between and sometimes a few days when conversations have ended). It was all innocent, we just chatted about random things and didn’t send pictures of ourselves to each other or anything but i never thought he would actually want to talk to me. Then one day he started to flirt with me, which really caught me off guard but i just laughed it off and carried on with our conversation. He didn’t do it again until a couple of days ago. Through this time of talking i realised i didn’t actually have romantic feelings for him which i suppose was for the best since we can’t be together anyway, but i’m nearly certain that he has feelings for me,
or at least has a crush on me. I began to feel really bad for talking to him but i liked him as a friend and i didn’t want to lose that but i didn’t want to lead him on either. I think i secretly still have romantic feelings for him, despite trying to convince myself (and my friends) that i don’t. I feel restless when he doesn’t talk to me and i’m really attracted to him but sometimes i do think that maybe i’m just looking for someone to be attached to and i maybe just like the idea of him. Anyway i’m just feeling really confused about what i’m feeling and frankly upset that i need to try and distance myself from him, for both of our sakes. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

hey,

first of all you said you like him, then you came to know that you actually dont like him but you think that you little bit like him. ok this is my explanation about this:
1: when we are in the age of 12-20 (Actually when we dont have a lot of exprience's) we tend to think we like someone just because we like something of him/her. for example, you might like how good looking he is or how cool he walks, then your mind tricks you/puts a bait for you, you fall into that bait since you are not exprienced. the bait/trick is: you start to think of that person but because the feeling/thoughts are new into your mind it makes you think of that person more than you realize, then it makes you get used to think about him/her, then it makes you like to think about him/her, then you will like to like him/her, then you get addicted to like that person. dw it usally lasts between 2 months to 3 years, its fake love.

its completely ok for you to think you like someone than start to realize you dont, its not your fault so its ok. anyways, dont stop talking to him but also be honest about what you feeling. i think you are religious so dont commite any sin too. stay strong, think and know what you want and what he wants. relationships is all about using mind. dont lead him and also try to know whether you are in a fake love or a real one. its really confusing i know but only you can know it.