So we were looking at the inferiority complex trope here but didn't really pay much attention to the comment that he found her manly. Let me tell you as a man, if a boy tells a girl that, there is no way in hell he is attracted to her. This is where it should have been obvious that he did not have feelings for her. He might yet develop those feelings and maybe it has changed but I would have expected him to say something like "I see you differently now" or have qualified that statement in some way.