Search Results: how to get out of the friend zone

I’ve been dating this guy for about 2 months. He seemed very interested in me at first. Texted, arranged dates, called me every other day. Had sex early on into the relationship... probably at around date 5. Every date that we’ve had has gone really good. We’ve gone on about 8 or 9 dates. He started to get very busy with work and our dates started to become every so often his schedule aligned with mine. We worked around his busy schedule.

He went away to visit a close family member overseas for a week and communication pretty much went downhill. He snapped me once every other day, but posted on his story. He also left me on ’open’ several times—meaning that he did not respond to me. Once on his trip he wanted to sext, I turned that down because I’m not about that especially when you chose to ignore my messages.

He recently came back from his trip and hasn’t at all made the effort to see how I am doing. No questions about how my week went, no reasons for why he could message me for a whole week. I asked him how his trip was via text and got bland responses in return.

From what I have gathered from him/his behavior, he is either too busy to date or uninterested in me so that being said... here is what I think I should do (5 plausible options):

#1 Break it off/friend-zone him: Text him that I am not going to be a side-priority that he will pursue on his terms... and because of that, we should stay friends (if even that)
#2 Tell him that I want a serious relationship with someone who values me and doesn’t put me on-hold
#3 Ask him if he wants to go out this week, and if he feels hesitant, go to option #2
#4 Only ask him if he wants to go out this week and if he says no (or shows any hesitancy): he ain’t the one, or if he says yes then I will tell him in person how I feel
#5 Ask him what is wrong and why he is acting distant.

This guy would be my first relationship and I feel like this guy is really special and unique... so any advice will help me :)