This person's friend is giving signs that they might ask them out. This person doesn't feel the same but also doesn't want to hurt their friend.

Hey!

It can be quite troublesome if someone doesn’t get your hints. I think one way you can approach this is that the next time someone in class teases you about him or tells you he obviously likes you, you can (slightly loudly) tell the other person that you’re both good friends and you don’t have romantic intentions towards the guy. This will

obviously be heard by your classmates and hopefully it’ll reach the ears of your male friend as well. And if you want it to be straight up, you can even just say the same thing in front of him. That he’s a good friend and you don’t hold romantic interest in him.

If you want to put extra effort into making him think you’re not interested in him, you can try replying to his texts a bit late and try to keep distance in your conversations. Again, that's extra effort. You won't necessarily have to do that.

If he does confess, there is no such thing as a good rejection. A rejection is going to hurt him even if just slightly. That is just the nature of rejections. You can, however, make it less painful by being polite. Just say that you think of him as a friend, that you want to continue your good friendship that way, and you don’t plan on dating him in the near future. Stating such things clearly is important and make sure that your friend doesn’t try to pressure you into thinking that you can’t be good friends if you reject him.

Remember he will need some space and time to adjust to the rejection, and you shouldn’t expect him to be all okay the next day. Your friendship will have to change if he confesses and you reject him. You can’t reject him and then go back to texting him daily. At least, not immediately. You should space yourself from him slightly and let him adjust. Perhaps let him approach you first.

There really isn’t much you can do expect for simply letting him know straightforwardly that you’re not interested currently and it’s not going to work out. It will be slightly hard to reject your friend but if you don’t want him to misunderstand, be clear and straightforward.

Good luck!! Come back anytime for more advice.

Thank you,

The Advice Column Team