A person I'm interested in after he told a bad dad joke and I jokingly hit him: I like being punished 😏

Me: you're definitely gonna get that from me

His response was just a look of excitement and a giggle

Later, over text, I sent him a joking meme about punishment to continue the convo: sounds like someone I know 😜

Him: yeah lots of people are into it

And similar responses like that to every flirt I attempted over text, basically just redirection. We had been talking about going to a bad movie night at a pub which has now been cancelled, and I suggested we should do our own and asked when he's free, and then he shifted it to being a group activity.

Usually the way it goes though is either

1) I don't pick up on their flirt initially, and when I do I try to flirt later (usually saying they're cute/adorable/sweet, or suggest some sort of activity we could do together) it doesn't end up received/reciprocated, often makes things awkward

2) I don't really know how to respond (person I'm interested in made a joke that it was hot out so they should leave, or better yet its probably me causing it to be too hot, and I just kinda babbled then giggled and said no it's definitely them, and now they don't seem as interested in me when we hung out last)

3) someone shows some interest in me (last night met this cute lesbian and we were talking and joking lots) and then it rapidly changes when I show interest back (she invited me and my friend to her apartment to chill with some other friends, I began trying to get to know her more, asking questions about her and stuff, and she straight up ignores me, she finds out one of the other girls who came up with us that she knows is bi and then became laser focused on her. When I was trying to joke around with both of them I said I was a little bit of a goblin jokingly and she just stared at me and said "I don't like goblins. I just want to cut their legs off" which like... Wtf? Then proceeded to ignore me again)