Do I have feelings for him or do I miss the attention? How to protect my ego

[b][u]The Dilemma :[/u][/b] I'm 21 and the boy is 23 In Recent weeks, an old friend and I have been catching up and talking very frequently. Initially I didn't feel attracted to him but we have good conversation. Previously He made plans to meet me for lunch but he was late, so left and told him his disrespect was unacceptable. He profusely apologized and began calling me all the time. I began to ignore him less and less. We would speak everyday. It was clear he liked me and we would flirt. He would say how attractive I am, call me everyday whether I picked up or not, when did speak we would talk for hours, he would take offence when I we say I didn't like guys that were so how characteristically similar to him, he would indirectly ask me out and I would decline, etc. Admit-tingly, liked the attention. Yesterday I jumped the gun. After he said he wasn't trying to date me in casual passing, unknown to him I took offence. A little while after that conversation, I called him back to cancel our prior plans of meeting up that week very dryly. He thought something was wrong but I insisted it was nothing. The next day, he called me and I told him that we shouldn't continue speak and we should cut off further communication completely. He asked why and I replied, "school". But it's clear he didn't believe me. I told him bye in a chirpy calm manner and he agreed, although with long silent pauses. I guess I wasn't satisfied with the response or felt bad, so I texted him afterwards and told him the reason why I didn't want to continue talking to him was because I felt like I was leading him on and since [i]we[/i] both intend to date each other, making plans and discussing certain things seems like a waste of time and feels wrong. He texted me back this long text about how he knew that what was bothering me and he 's doesn't want to waste my time, and I should be more upfront with things bothering me because he has more intuition than i think. And he said he meant he didn't want to date [i] now[/i], not that it's going to be forever and he told me before. I felt embarrassed. I called him back and told him that he was misinterpreting my text and trying to read between the lines. And that I never wanted to date him nor was I angry. He said he's confused, I tried to explain but He brushed away my explanation, and asks if I'm still not talking to him. And I said yes very cheerfully. there was a very long pause and then he hung up. After I came off the phone, I didn't feel satisfied or justified. I just wanted to talk to him again. I even deleted his number from phone but it's didn't help. I kept thinking about him and having this constant weird pitting feeling in my stomach the whole day. [u][b]Questions[/b][/u] I would ask you on how do I approach speaking to him again. But i feel so embarrassed like I overreacted and was better off ignoring him without confessing how felt with a text. How would I even approach him again? Up until now I had the power in our relationship, and now I lost it. Should I commit to not speaking to him again, will this feeling go away? Does this mean I have feelings for him? Or do I just miss the attention I get from his conversation? I never intended to date him or take seriously, so why did I get so upset? Was it just a bruise to my ego or was it more than that? I have never felt this way before, so I seriously have no idea. What should I do?

*edit I had a typo: I texted him it was best we go our separate ways because we both do not intend to date each other. * replace the word cheeringly with calmly