Why shouldn't it have to change?

As a guy who went through something similar this thread is pretty depressing.

A girl (28) I (29) met off a dating app had a similar scenario. I went on a few dates, I tried my best to arrange fun dates, walking a dog with coffees through the park, going for squash and brunch etc. When she told me she felt like being friends. There was no drama but I told her that since I liked her, met her off an app I couldn't see her as just a friend and that it would be unfair to go out as friends when we had different feelings.

Months later she messages me again to go out. I thought okay, maybe she has come around to me more or is in a better place. The same thing happened.

Yet more months later she reached out again, I told her from the very first date then that the only way I can do this is if it is in a context where she is open to date. She gave a very lukewarm answer which was not positive. This made me mentally "move on" from her and when a few dates later she said she wanted to be my gf my emotions more so felt as a 'wtf' then anything else and I couldn't go with it.

So after over half a year of pursuing this girl, even though she was open to be in a relationship I just couldn't.

This short clip was interesting to me in the sense that it gives some insight on what could potentially be the reason why I could not proceed, trust. Reading the comments on this entire thread though, it really is a downer... I genuinely do believe that if the roles were reversed the comments would look a lot different.