Guy's Behavior

Does he like me? I am unsure how he may be feeling, I want to get to know him more but I do not want to be led on?

I have known this guy for 8 months now and whenever he sees me he laughs and smiles a lot. For instance, he would call my name and then when I turn to look at him he would look down and smile to himself and then continue telling me what he wanted to say. We have a similar sports hobby and he would always laugh when I do or say something even if it's not so funny. When he talks with other girls or guys he doesn't laugh or smile unless something funny was said. But what confuses me is that he is nice and friendly to everyone. He seems like a physical type of person because he does tap his friends and stuff but he does a lot of physical contact when speaking to me (like a tap on my stomach or waist, he even shook my shoulders when telling a story before) However, we do a contact sport so touching is inevitable. Sometimes when he watches me and we make eye contact he would just smile and like if he was sitting he would bury his head in his arms when he laughs or he would stop and smile but look down or somewhere else if he was standing. A problem is that he doesn't really text me first personally. If he does want to text me first it is through a group chat that we are in. Once he invited me to exercise with him and when we were finished he texted through the group chat that I did a great job today. I don't know why he can't text me personally? Every time we texted privately (three times) was when I initiated it. He was responsive but then he would stop texting mid conversation. I do not know if he is busy or if there's nothing else to say. He does text me first but only through the group chat which I find weird because why would someone use a group chat to just talk to one specific person (unless he didn't't want me to get the wrong idea). I haven't seen him around much lately because I have been busy with classes. When I saw him this week he was different, he used to be nicer but he teased me a lot.

Does he like me? I am unsure how he may be feeling, I want to get to know him more but I do not want to be led on?
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