u/Unable_Okra141

I need unbiased opinions because I genuinely cannot tell if this is just emotional attachment/friendship or if there’s some lowkey romantic undercurrent developing.

Context:
He’s younger than me and calls me sister(in native language), but the dynamic doesn’t fully feel sibling-like anymore either.
We started off discussing politics/social issues/random reels and over time the conversations became VERY frequent and layered. We now talk about:
politics,
workplace ethics,
social issues,
personal philosophies,
films,
leadership,
humour,
even difficult things happening in our lives.
The thing confusing me is the level of effort and continuity from his side.
Examples:
if I disappear for a day, he starts sending multiple reels/memes till I respond.
he remembers tiny details from old conversations.
he revisits things I said days ago.
he asks for my opinion specifically on political/social situations because he says he values how I see things “on the ground.”
he shares random things he personally enjoys (not just generic forwards).
he checks on my emotional state if I’m going through something stressful.
recently I’m dealing with a serious issue at work and instead of avoiding it, he became more emotionally attentive and kept checking if I was okay.
he tries to cheer me up specifically in ways tailored to my personality.
he also recently shared a very obvious sexual double meaning meme with me, which surprised me because of the “sister” thing.
BUT:
I casually asked him for coffee once and he declined saying he already had plans. He didn’t reschedule. However, after that he became MORE engaged again over text/reels/conversation.
He’s the founder of a startup and after declining coffee separately, he later casually told me to come hang at his office sometime with him and his cofounder because he thinks I’d get along with them.
That somehow felt more personal to me than the coffee thing because it felt like he was slowly integrating me into his actual world rather than keeping me as just an online/texting person.
Now I’m confused because:
this doesn’t feel like simple sibling energy,
but it’s also not straightforward romantic pursuit,
and yet there’s definitely emotional investment/attachment/effort.
The weirdest part is:
I initially thought coffee was just casual, but now even I understand why meeting one-on-one suddenly feels psychologically “charged” after all this emotional/intellectual closeness.
So my question:
What does this kind of dynamic usually become?
emotionally attached friendship?
slow-burn attraction?
emotionally intimate limbo?
younger guy admiration?
or am I over-reading normal emotionally intelligent male behaviour?
To be fair, I do like him a bit now, so I can’t tell how much of this is intuition vs projection.
Would genuinely like objective takes 😭