Friendship or more? Help!

Basically I am best friends with this guy, whom I have known for about a year now and we have gotten very close recently. We spent basically almost every day together over the past few months, all day, and messaging non stop when we were not together. Although we are very close friends there is definitely sexual chemistry between us, longing stares, flirty dancing in clubs etc. He also told me once when drunk that when we first met a year ago at a common friend’s party he was too intimidated to approach me because I was the most beautiful girl there. Even though as I said we have had slightly flirty conversations before, I feel like those are restricted to drunken scenarios and also like he leaves his comments deliberately ambiguous, so that he has plausible deniability over them. As I said, we message a lot etc and also plan things in two, talk in terms of ‘us’ etc but nothing concrete has happened between us, even though sometimes when we are together and acting like a couple I find it hard to believe that he doesn’t know, even though I know I am very bad at letting my feelings show because I am afraid of feeling vulnerable and getting hurt.

Lately though I feel like we had stopped playing games and trying to make each other jealous to get a reaction out of one another, and I was very happy with how things were slowly progressing but I feel like now we are back at it again. He’s been making comments about needing to find a girlfriend, etc etc and I humored him, even though he has not made those comments since the dynamics of our relationship have started to change from friendship into what I was sure was something more. He has made the odd comment about other people he had been with but back then I was 100% convinced from his behaviour and from the way he said it that he was trying to get a reaction out of me and see if I minded. Lately though he has been making more comments like the above and I thought I had maybe misinterpreted things so made some random comments about a guy who asked me out to coffee thinking he wouldn’t care if he is also interested in other people, but as per usual he ignored me and wasn’t supportive, and seemed a bit shocked I would accept. He reacted the way he always did in the past when I would make the odd comment but I thought we were way past playing games. Now he told me his ex asked to see him for dinner and I pretended not to mind, but obviously I do. He didn’t seem impressed by my reaction. I don’t know what to think anymore. I am not the type to overanalyse and interpret something like friendship as more than it is, but I would be ready do admit I might have been wrong despite everything he said and did to make me believe otherwise if it wasn’t for my friends telling me as well that he clearly likes me but that I don’t seem to give him any signs I like him more than a friend. If this sounds like two young and immature people apologies, it’s probably because we both ARE young and immature, in our first year at uni. I just care about him a lot and if I was wrong about him liking me I’d rather stop it now so I don’t get my feelings more hurt. I don’t know whether he was once interested but isn’t anymore, and is now looking at other options, or whether he is once again trying to make me jealous or get a reaction out of me through mentioning other girls because he sees no other way of doing this and because I have not shown him that I like him as more than a friend. I tried to make him jealous by mentioning someone else too but he kind of laughed it off, he used to show that he was bothered by it back in the day but apparently now he’s playing it cool and I really don’t know what to think. Then again, I never show him that I am jealous even if I am so I really don’t know…