he only replies to me in groupchats?

hi again just wanted to get advice on this one thing. there’s this one guy and he’s my classmate, in fact, we have 3/6 classes with each other. we weren’t rly close before because he doesn’t interact with many girls, i’ve seen that it’s true and his close frnds say so as well.
but recently, i had the chance to sit at his table and i feel that we’ve def gotten closer from talking and stuff. we even have a gc to w me and his other frnd. he’s starting to share several personal things to me and i think that it’s generally rly sweet.
however, we have this gc right, one w just us three and the other with my other frnd who’s a girl. she is his fam frnd, but aren’t close. it seems like he only replies me. like whenever, they text smth into the gc he just leaves it on read, but when i text he reponds immediately.
could someone pls tell me what they think? is it just cus he feels close to me? or does he perhaps like me???