Does he like me or is he playing?

Hello everyone!

I have sort of a complicated situation.

I met this guy when I was still in high school but we weren’t that close. In the last year of high school we started to talk more but after the year finished I moved out of the country. We stayed in touch for a little bit but not much. A few years later we followed each other on social media and every now and then we spoke but eventually we both were in relationships.
This year however he messaged me more often than usual. We both weren’t in a relationship anymore.
A few months ago I travelled back to my country for a short visit and he asked to meet but we met with a few other friends. We didn’t have the chance to be alone a lot but the times we spoke he asked a lot about my ex. I did feel sort of a flirty or interested vibe from him but since we didn’t have a lot of time alone I couldn’t tell 100%. When we were saying goodbye he gave me two kisses in the cheeks.

BUT after that he didn’t message me at all. Until the day I was leaving, he asked me if I was still around.

The next few weeks he liked some insta stories but nothing else. And then I did another trip with a friend and I posted stories. He liked a few and I noticed that sometimes he saw my story but liked it after 20h, which makes me believe he came back to see it. And eventually he answered one asking if I went with my ex. I decided to be a little flirty and he reciprocated. But then after a few messages between us he never answered my message, in fact he didn’t even open it. And it’s been 1 week and a half.

During that week, he met with a friend of mine and she basically told him that it was obvious he liked me. He didn’t deny it and said “she is extremely beautiful, you should see her from my eyes to understand me”.

But why doesn’t he make any effort to talk to me? Am I being delusional?

By the way, apparently his best friend also has a crush on me and he does way more moves on me, but I am not interested in him.