My take on this is that his denial of having feelings for her is possibly more to the tune of "yet," or "I don't want to admit I have feelings for someone again and then have them crushed underfoot. Oh god, if she rejected me the same way as that other girl after comforting me about my insecurities from then I might actually want to die. So I'm going to believe with all my might that these are just feelings of admiration."