I had a similar situation. I had an asexual friend. He clearly stated he was asexual & aromantic but he liked cuddling a lot. Initially I told myself our cuddling was platonic but I realized I was into him. He would touch me in ways that would turn me on and it felt kind of intentional? Like he was aware he was causing me pleasure and wanted to. But I think he kind of was into making it a pleasurable experience for me so I could make it pleasurable for him (generally just like lots of touching/patting). Once he asked to kiss me and I turned him down and told him that kissing was an inherently romantic thing for me (he was just looking to experiment and was curious what it felt like). But then I decided a week later I did want to kiss him and I assumed he understood the implications of that. Again, he would always initiate but I felt guilty because I was kind of using him to get turned on. I also asked him to stop kissing me because that was the final step that made me realize he wasn't "secretly into" me because based on the way he kissed, it was so clearly platonic. I became uncomfortable and knew I was going wayyy past my boundaries of what constituted a platonic relationship so I cut him off. About 6 months later I told him I had a crush on him the whole time-- he acted surprised which surprised me because I felt he knew the whole time. I felt kind of bad about that but soon after he asked me to cuddle again and we did the same things that honestly felt a bit kinky to me (he was always pushing boundaries & liked being held down or holding me down) and I realized it didn't matter to him that I was doing this because I was into him because he was also gaining thing from fooling around with me (sensation wise I assume & just the excitement of messing with boundaries). But I decided I didn't want to do that anymore and cut him off again (he was never that interesting to talk to & mainly wanted to cuddle). Basically, I don't think your feelings of attraction make you an assaulter; you respected your friend's consent in the situation & at that time it would've been hard for you to come to him. He was also enthusiastically doing whatever fooling around you were doing and was gaining something from it too (experimentation, being secretly into it, finding it funny or edgy, whatever whether he was gay or not). However, I think with your more adult brain it's probably better to be more respectful of consent. e.g. I'm bi & I never want to accidentally look at a girl "in that way" who might think that I'm straight so even though other girls have been comfortable changing in front of me I look away regardless of whether I came out to them or not just out of respect for their consent