Deeply In Secret (BoyxBoy)

Bonus - Misunderstood

I need people that can empathize with my situation. 

NOTE : "if someone came out and told you that he has extreme feelings for you but, you don't feel the same way. you should tell him the truth firstly! for not having fake hopes."

let's start:

Ugh, I'm not sure if this is the right way to tell but I really need someone to talk to that is anonymous. (i don't want any of my close friends to know for his sake cause i wanna keep it for me. for us) :
it's not long since we've known each other. recently he was there for me (we've been so close) and that I can talk about literally anything with and he knows he can talk about anything with me. The last couple of days he's been very quiet and inside his head a lot and not stimulating to have a conversation with, so I asked him what's up, until he just responded :
  - What are we?
  - Friends, besties..
  -Hmm , i love you.
I didn't really think he was serious so I said "Love you too dude." And he said back "I like, seriously love you, the real meaning of love." without any smile or clue that he was taking the piss. So, i asked him if he was gay for me, like have crush on me. He answered me "Yeah, i guess." I just didn't know what to do. Maybe, it's because of me, (i gave him fake hopes).
I turned off my phone pretty early and thought about what the hell I should do. He's a really, really good friend and I don't want to lose him and he said that he took such a long time to tell me because he wasn't sure how I would react and thought I would go over the top and like cut all ties. I'm very acceptant of gays in the past and I don't have a conscious homophobic thought. But the rest of the night I felt very very awkward around him and I didn't know what to say. I know that people can't control how they feel and it's not his fault he feels this way. I know how hard it must of been for him having these desires and having to have kept quiet for fear of social alienation and I really feel sorry for him. But I really really don't know how to advance and tell him that I don't have these feelings for him but I'm afraid that all the times that we hang out together there will always been this elephant in the room that we can never address and that that will never change. He's such a great mate. I just want things to return to how they were before...

Many people said : "just tell him you don't feel the same. It blows but it's the truth. Tell him that regardless you still want to be friends and there isn't a reason not to be. Of course things are going to feel a bit different for a while but just make sure you both get a chance to speak your mind and express your feelings."  But, I can't I'm a weak person cause I really want to put through the fact that I don't want anything to change, but I'm a little afraid that it will.

Duh, if you go through there I would like to tell you that I LOVE YOU.