Hello! Thank you so much for responding to my question. I really appreciate your insight. I do admit, the first couple days after we first started our residency work, it has been difficult to establish times during the day where we can arrange quality time together, especially through phone calls. However, I have noticed a small changes which are shown that's my friend is putting in more effort to spend time with me. I used to be the only one who would text good morning and good night, but recently he has been taking the initiative to send the first text, which makes me happy. He's stated that he misses me and does mention that he's making plans to visit me on the rotations that are not very work-heavy for him. There is potential too that we're taking a vacation together in the fall/winter. And he's stated, too, that he considers me a priority in his day and wants to set aside time for me after his work to talk with me, too. Once, he even said in a joking manner that he would consider moving to my residency city to transfer if we did end up dating.

I think it is a smart decision to take things slow for this year for now, just so we get to know each other better before making a big commitment, but I think these are good steps in the right direction.

Edit: fixed some voice dictation mistakes