This may sound stupid and complicated at the same time, so please bear with me as this is going to be quite a post. I've tried asking my friends for advice, but I don't know if they're just telling me things to make me feel better, or if it's actually true. I figured strangers would give it to me straight. Anyway, I started liking one of my friends a little more than half a year ago and he had a clear attraction towards me....we eventually hooked up and have been hooking up since, but I feel that our relationship is more than just sex. These days, we pretty much spend our entire days together as we are in the same classes, we study together, hang out/eat together and most nights I spend sleeping over at his place, often times just snuggling (no sex) and enjoying each others' company.

I know the easiest thing to do is to talk to him, but one of my biggest set backs is that I am horrible with confrontation. I mustered up the courage to ask him what 'we were' when we first hooked up, but he told me that he normally just goes with the flow, and that we were not going out but he also added in that he really likes being around me and that he has a good time when he does-- he just needs to get to know me better on another level (I guess on more than just a friend level?) and to see how things were going to end up. At that time we pretty much only partied together and would hang out at group dinners or in class.

It's been 5 months since that talk-- and well I've told you about the development and how much more time we have ended up spending together now. From all of our friends' and even classmates'/schoolmates' point of view, it looks like we are going out. They tell me that they see that he cares about me a lot.

He's also not the type to often express what he feels, so when I am around other guy friends I don't know if he gets jealous or not. To me, it looks like he's perfectly okay with it (I'm not testing him and trying to get him upset/jealous, by the way). Watching from the sidelines, my friends (guy and girl friends) say that they can tell that he does jealous, but he tries to play it cool to give me my space, which I really respect-- yet at the same time, I wouldn't mind if he'd just tell me how he felt once in a while.

Also, we go to school abroad so we've been separated last month during the winter break as he is from the States and I am from Canada. We would still talk everyday though (via skype or whatsapp). I was joking around once telling him to go out, have fun and go find himself a girl in the mean time and he reacted somewhat offended, establishing that he had no intentions of sleeping with another girl. He would also tell me that he misses me, started giving me pet names and would give me a kiss every night before we went to bed (well in a form of a 'muah' since weren't physically next to each other).

My friend says that she's been in relationships before where the guy has never had to say things like "let's be exclusive" or "be my girlfriend", etc...but to me I don't understand how they both know that they are an official item. Perhaps he's like this too, and already considers us being in a relationship especially since he just 'goes with the flow'? Because even to me, it feels like we are in one....

With all this said, is it possible that we ARE actually going out already and I just didn't know?


P.S.: I swear, I will talk to him about this. As I know a relationship will never work out without proper communication. I think it's just extra hard for me because before we hooked up and were just friends back then, he used to confide in me about is ex girlfriend. Telling me about how he'll probably never love some one the same way again, and that she'll always hold a special place in his heart (I'm sure he would have married her if his parents had approved of her-- but he's very filial). So this lack of courage to ask him a simple question roots from my insecurity. In a way, I know I am just scared to hear what he has to say. I know I will be hurt if I ask him again, and he says we are not going out, nor does he intend to start a relationship with me. I wasn't hurt when I asked the first time, because I agreed that we definitely needed to see how things went first-- but at this point, I'm ready for us to be official.

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.