He keeps shipping me with his friend even though I rejected him?

[Anonymous]

So basically there’s this one guy , let’s call him Aiden, so like , I used to have the fattest crush on him in 2022 but he didn’t like me back and stopped talking to me , but anyways , this year 2024 turns out one of his friends likes me , ( let’s call him alex ) and Aiden keeps like shipping me with him , like every time he talks to me , it has to be about Alex , like he calls me “ Alex lover “ and I js say “ hell no “ , and like today today I found out Alex likes me but I rejected him , and then Aiden called me “ alex lover!!” And I said “ I rejected him “ And he just like pouted , and still called me “ alex lover “ , but like the thing is , Aiden is always looking at me , and I js wanna know if he likes me or not , or js trying to get my attention or like what , like I wanna know what’s up with him

[DoggyDude]

Could be anything. The following are some of the likeliest options:

o He is trying his best for his friend Alex to give him an 'in' with the girl he likes because he feels comfortable talking with you.
o He's trying to get you liking anyone but him and he's using his friend in that capacity.
o Maybe there isn't an Alex and he's using this situation to keep pretending he's not into you to furthur inflame your feelings in the hope you might jump right to offering sex (it sounds weird, but there is a certain type of guy who weaponises the idea of rejection in this way to increase their chances of a girl deciding they need to esculate to get the guy to see them, aka there is nothing more attractive than they guy you can't quite have). At least if they guy has attraction for you.
o It might be your over-reading into what he says and does because you have a very serious crush on him (which has gone unrequited) and your subconsiously looking for him to be 'secretly' liking you.

So could be any of those, or indeed none.

What you need to do here is basically date, a lot. See other guys and generally enjoy your life. If there is any kind of 'secret feelings' or anything worth while, his attitude will change once he knows your dating other guys (e. g. if he did like you he will start to be jelous on some level. or may stop talking with you and be unhappy if you try to re-engage [when you could then remind him your open to date him if thats true]); If he was just hoping you would be with his friend he'll carry on with encouraging you that way; Lastly if its anything else, he probablly won't even notice your with others more.

So there you go.

[Avicenna]

I'd ask him directly what he's trying to do. Sounds like he thinks he's testing you, but only he knows for sure.

[strateguy632]

you won! he is now jealous! now you can ask him if he wants to take a walk together.

[Anonymous]

Why can't you just ask him?

[In_Trance]

So ask him