He gave one? He said he wants to stay as they were before. He just realised tha yeah she is indeed cute and people are acting like he is completely in love with her.
I feel for her here. She laid it all out just shy of straight up telling him she likes her, and he basically tells her straight up he doesn't see her that way, and more than that he doesn't want to see her that way. That's gotta hurt.
I don't know, it honestly feels like a classic case of "I don't want our friendship to end so I am gonna bury these feelings of mine and be in denial about them no matter how much I suffer due to it"