Guy seems to care a lot about what I think about his smoking addiction. Why?

Anonymous
I really like this guy, who is a smoker.

A few months ago we talked about his addiction and basically he said that he is aware of how bad it is for his health but that he doesn’t want to quit since it’s too much effort. I told him that I’m really against smoking and that I think he should try to quit but didn’t press further because I didn’t want to annoy him, and that was it.

A few weeks ago we were out at dinner with friends and he told me, all proud of himself, that he had left his cigarettes at home. I told him good job. After a few minutes, though, someone offered him one and he accepted. Without me saying anything, he looked at me with a guilty/embarrassed expression and said “they offered it to me…” as an excuse and I laughed it off, because again I didn’t want to act like a “mom” or annoy him.

Today he told me that he decided to smoke less cigs a day because he wants to become fitter and because he doesn’t want to die young. He explicitly told me “I promise you that I’ll only smoke 2 per day”. Maybe I looked him with a strange expression because hey, why does he feel the need to promise this to me? So he corrected himself and said “No, better, I promise myself”. Than we talked about it further and he really opened up, telling me all his worries, his weaknesses and his thoughts related to this and saying he already feels stressed and tired. He even talked about crying spells he will experience because of quitting: he looked so vulnerable in that moment that I really had to fight my urge to hug him. I told him I believe in him and tried to motivate him, and he seemed grateful.

I’m really happy if he does in fact chose to quit smoking, because I love him and want him to be the healthiest and happiest possible. But I don’t understand why he feels the need to justify himself with me if he smokes or to promise me he will quit. Why does he care about what I will think? I don’t even know if he considers me an actual friend or more like an acquaintance lol.
Guy seems to care a lot about what I think about his smoking addiction. Why?
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