For starters, I'm extremely sorry for the massively long post. I wanted to include as much information I could.

I'm an 24 year old exchange student about to complete his program, coming home by the end of August to finish up last year of my masters studies and I'm then planning to return to this country. Ever since April, I've been ocassionally having lunches/dinners with a 20 year old local girl I like very much. She is also leaving on a student exchange until next spring just few days before I return back home. I'm hoping to date her for rest of the summer, and then continue it as long distance for a while in hopes of eventually being reunited by the end of next spring. I'm rather serious about this girl, having felt this strongly about someone only once before.

Things started moving forward a bit over 3 weeks ago when she came over to my place to watch her favorite show with me. At that point our relationship was outwardly still that of just friends. That night, we ended up cuddling for god knows how many hours while watching the tv and listening to music. I ended up finally confessing to her, gave her a light kiss on temple but didn't push it further. She never directly returned the important words, but she was cuddling me back, didn't seem to want to return home and promised that from now on, she'd instantly check up her schedule and reply when I invite her somewhere. She's always been bad at timely returning messages what with her getting spammed by all of her friends (saw her cellphone with like 20+ unread messages with more coming by the minute), so that felt like a definite improvement. She also admitted not having a boyfriend and told me that lately she's been seeing me more than her friends. We talked about how we are both kind of busy with school and exams and can't really meet up much at all before August. She also made offhand comment about wanting to come to visit my homecountry and have fun with me after she's done with her exchange, and I mentioned about coming to see her during her exchange over the holidays.

4 days later, before I can meet up with her again, she gets hit by a truck. She let me know of the accident instantly, and all things considered she got off easy - only a broken collarbone which did require an operation. She ended spending nearly 2 weeks in the hospital 1 prefecture over, where I went to visit her twice. I offered to come visit her more often, but for one reason or another she refused me. First time I went to see her, her mom was around at the start, which made it all sorts of awkward - I'm unfamiliar with her friends and family. After we were left alone, we ended up talking about all sorts of stuff, I ended up feeding her a desert and I made it clear that I still very much like her. Again, she didn't reply it directly, but we were having physical contact inappropriate for just friends. While showing me out of the hospital, she grabbed hold of my hand in the lobby in front of many other people, which was rather unusual. Here, physical displays of affection in front of others are generally disapproved of. 2nd time around, we weren't as close physically, but talked about going on a few day trip in August to a local famous resort, if she could afford it/is able to go as far as her condition and family allows. After all, she won't regain the full use of her right arm for a while.

After that, she got home on last week's friday and from sunday, she suddenly stopped responding to my messages. Her replies were usually always slow, so I didn't really worry at start, but then I finally hunted her out at the university on wednesday after 4 days of no replies. Found her with her friends when she was busy so ended up just exchange quick hellos and asked her to reply to me when she can. I had asked for just 15 minutes of time to have an important conversation with her - I wanted to make our relationship clear. When she finally replied on thursday, it was clear she hadn't even read all of what I had written to her and just ignored my request for 15 minutes of her time. Following that, I catched her again on thursday when she was free and told her we needed to talk. I had been worried for a while because of her lack of directly admitting to liking to me, even though her actions from before spoke for it. I told her that I was worried that she might intentionally be ignoring me, which she denied. Overall, she seemed happy to be talking to me - as usual, when we meet everything seems to be okay, but over messages she comes off cold. I proceeded to tell her again that I like her, and that I would like us to officially date for now and that when she has to leave, I'd like to continue it as long distance if she still feels like it at that point.

Turns out I was right with my fears - she said she had decided that she doesn't want to date anyone before she goes on exchange. She pointed out that it's such a short while, and that after discussing it with her family and doctor, she was told that she'd be unable to do any of the trips or other things we had talked about. She also claimed that I'm only a friend to her and she never thought more of me. That was also why she never directly said that she liked me. Also, while she doesn't have a boyfriend, she has a person she is interested in. She mentioned that from her past experience, if we were to date we couldn't return to friends afterwards and that she'd just want to be a friend with me.

I asked her to give me a chance till end of summer, and after long back and forth discussion, where she went from "no" to "can you give me some time think about it" to back to "no, even if I think about it my answer will be the same" to finally asking me to give her time to consider it. I told her I'd like to hear her answer during next week and that I'd not bother her anymore in the meanwhile. I sent her a long message that night where I told her that I wouldn't be bothering her anymore until monday, and explained why I think she likes me, told her how I feel about her and that I'd like to continue it beyond end of summer if she was up for it and generally asked her to consider it well and give me a chance.

Considering everything we've done together and how she has acted around me, I find her claim of never liking me like that hard to believe. Potential other guy who she likes even more might or might not be true - but at the same time the fact that she wanted a while to think about dating me makes me believe I might have a tiny chance. I can't help but to feel pessimistic about my chances, but I really do like this girl. The past few days have been killing me - I cannot concentrate on anything, I haven't been eating and can't even get sleep. In the likely event that she says no, it will probably end up being the last time we ever meet as holidays start here and we won't be having any chance encounters. Personally, I feel that she's relucant because of the looming separation at end of August that would last until at least around Christmas. Until last week's Sunday, she was seemingly fine with me and this sudden attitude flip is scaring me.

Am I done for or do I still have a chance? I'm planning to go for one last push next week when we meet, before she can tell me her answer. Any recommendations on course of action? Should I just cut my losses and try my best to get over her?

All in all, I know I'm being incredibly selfish here, considering only my feelings on the matter. However, I have experience in past of a situation where I gave up on a girl going abroad for a year, which I regret to the date. I'm rather set on not repeating that mistake, and any advice would be appreciated. Again, sorry for the massively long post.