Please, need an opinion on my friend's sexuality

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum. I'll try to keep it short, what I would really like is to get your views on this relationship that's been confusing me for almost a year.

Ok, so I'm 25, still at college. One day, at this study room I met this guy, a colleague, who looked amazing and we talked for a bit, and that was it. He had an appearance of a sporty looking, hunk, jock guy and I was 100% sure he was straight.
I was (positively) surprised two weeks later to receive an e-mail from him (he saw my name on one of the documents we were briefly discussing about and memorized it) - it was short, he asked me if I was going to study again in that room, and added that he realizes that approaching like this is a bit weird. I was so ecstatic and happy - and I immediately thought: "that's it! he is gay after all! this is just an excuse to see me!". So we got in touch and started to study together, have a cup of coffee now and then, always just the two of us. In a course of 11 months as of the time I write this, we got to know each other interests in movie, lifestyle, views on life, but everything to a degree. You see, we never ever explicitly talked about relationships. I never said to him directly that I was gay - he could only guess it by my appearance (most of the people say they thought I was gay the first time they saw me). He also never talked about his sexuality, but we kept hanging out together, and I realized I have feelings for him, regardless of his good looks.
So, to ask the question. 10 days ago he said his ex-girlfriend contacted him, and that freaked him out. We continued to talk about that, and he explained that he met me after their break up, and that he was in a bad state at that time and that he wanted "something new, a change". He noticed me on the faculty even before that "study room scene". But the discussion didn't explicitly end on defining our relationship... it was just hard for me to ask directly. We were out in a bar, and stayed up all the way until early morning together, he came by my place, and after a while left suddenly looking really nervous and uncomfortable.

So, my question finally is: "is this the way a straight guy would approach another guy looking for a friend?"

Am I merely projecting and seeing there is more to this than just a friendship? He gave me that night a compliment that he never met anyone like me (regarding how I treat my friends, positively). And I was a coward to tell him I'm gay and ask him what he really felt about me.

My final conclusion is that he is searching (bi curious perhaps) and that possibly our relationship confuses him.

If you need any more info I will be glad to share, just ask. I'm really losing my mind about this, I should be doing other stuff but I just can't focus.

Thanks for reading!

 

Thanks for your reply. That is a possibility indeed... it's just that my friends are giving me advice that I should ask him directly if that's really bothering me so much.

Just like you, I think I should let the things play out by themselves.