I think you should put a buffer of gentle teasing between you and him, to feel safe, and then wait it out to see what happens.

E.g.

- he says that you do things to his body when he simply thinks of you.

You can acknowledge it but stop there.

E.g. "it is nice to hear that". "Oh, is that so?" (a little Southern ), "mmm", or, pat him on his head lightly, as if he were a child. Or, "you are so sweet" and change the topic of the conversation. "Aaah... when is the concert tonight?"

You are not rejecting him; you are not telling him to back off; but, you are not overly enthusiastic, either. Just a notch above neutral towards positive, but not more than that. There are a lot of phrases and gestures that can accomplish this.

Once this buffer is in place, you can spend many months watching the situation unfold and quietly deciding what to do.