Questions: Flirting

Of course, nobody can tell what he is exactly feeling but I just want opinion from other people specifically guys.

This guy (24) (we will call him John) and me (25) have been online friends since 2019 when covid striked. He's been in relationships, some shorter ones (like 1yr max) and I've been in a longer ones since then. However we would always be in contact and especially when both single. We talk via calls for hours sometimes, however not often, once in a while as he lives in USA and I live in Europe. we also text but not everyday. We know each other well. I realized i have major crush on him, like im always drown to him no matter what. We can stop talking for some time and i dont think about him but as soon as we chat again my crush is back. For 7 (SEVEN) years... he flirts with me unexpextedly, asks me sometimes all of a sudden like whats my romantic status, he listens to me well, asks for my opinions and advices. But when we flirt he is either keeping it going or sometimes just changes energy all of a sudden and stops doing so. He mostly initiates this and i just follow along. Maybe only couple of times i initiated him. He mentions wanting to meet up and how nice it would be but we never actually talk seriously about it. Pls someone tell me what do you think? Is he also into me but avoids it due to distance or he just sees me as a friend?