Shy guys are extremely secretive and can be very hard to read. In general, they play by a different set of rules, mainly because they don’t know what the rules are or because they are too self-conscious.
• Don’t ask him outright if he likes you. Confrontation is a shy-guy’s Kryptonite. Not only will he deny that he’s interested, but he’ll probably also begin avoiding you afterwards out of embarrassment. Always use subtle techniques when interacting with a shy guy.
*Don’t ask his friends if he likes you. Shy guys’ top priority is secrecy. If a shy guy likes you, it’s very, very likely that he hasn’t told anyone and doesn’t intend to.
Asking his friends has a very serious downside: You may be given bad information about whether or not he likes you. Because he’s shy and doesn’t express his feelings often, you might get the idea that he’s not interested when he actually is.
Asking his friends also has the downside of putting the ball in his court. When he knows – or guesses – that you like him, he’s going to think that you want him to ask you out. This makes him feel pressured. As frustrating as it may be, you’re going to have to do a lot of the work here, helping him feel relaxed along the way.
• Compare his behaviour toward you with his behaviour toward others. Shy guys’ behaviour can be so strange that it might not make sense on its own. Instead of only analysing his behaviour when he’s around you, compare it to how he acts around others. Look for anything he does extra around you – whether it’s good or bad. Is he extra nice, extra quiet, extra nervous or extra irritable? If he treats you differently than everyone else, he definitely has strong feelings of some sort for you.
Does he get really quiet around you? His inability to talk might be nervousness: He’s got a crush on you, and he’s so afraid of saying something weird or stupid that he’s told himself it’s better just not to talk when you’re around.
• Read his body language. However, instead of looking for the usual flirting behaviour (getting near you, touching you, and other look-at-me body language), watch for signs that he’s uncomfortable around you. If he looks down, crosses his arms, avoids eye contact, or makes nervous gestures more than usual when he’s with you, chances are that he’s making an extra effort to hide his interest in you.
Does he fidget with his hands, clothes, or his hair when you talk to him? These things are definitely a sign of nervousness; talking to you makes him so flustered that he can’t keep still.
Does he sweat or perspire around you? Sweating is another sign of nervousness. Sweating is an involuntary bodily function, and if he could control it, he would. But he can’t, so his forehead and underarms are likely to bead up.
Does he blush or gulp a lot around you? Blushing can be tough to see, but on some guys it’s obvious: His face lights up and he looks like he’s just run a mile. Gulping is a sign that he knows he needs to say something but can’t find the exact words, or any words, to say.
Is he around you often, but never close to you? It could be that he savours being near you, but doesn’t want to tip his hand by being close to you. If he’s always somewhere close, but never close enough, he might be as hopelessly drawn to you as you are to him.
• Try to catch him looking at you. Since shy guys suppress their feelings so much more than other guys, keeping their interest a secret and sometimes avoiding their crushes altogether, they often steal glances to make up for it. Watch him from your peripheral vision to see if he stares at you when he thinks you’re not looking. If he does it more than once, he’s definitely interested. Be careful, though: if you look at him and he turns away immediately, he is totally embarrassed. Smile at him if you want to give him hope.
At the same time, does he avoid looking at you altogether? Even shy guys look at girls some of the time. If he consistently avoids looking at you, it could be that he doesn’t want you to notice his secret feelings. Notice whether he looks at other girls to find out if he acts like that in general or just around you.
• Pay attention to the way he talks to you. Everybody gets nervous when chatting with the person they like, but for shy guys, it’s even worse; usually, they will give you either short, quiet, possibly even snappy answers or they’ll speak very quickly and ramble on out of sheer panic. Again, note whether or not his speaking is extra awkward around you compared to around other people.
Does he give you short “yes” or “no” answers and refuse to elaborate? It’s not that he’s not interested in the conversation; it’s that he’s too interested in the conversation and doesn’t want to say anything that might reveal his affection for you.
Is he more confident around his friends? His friends offer him a little bit of psychological support. He still doesn’t want to mess up in front of you, but he’s a little more willing to engage in conversation.
See if he makes friends with your friends. It’s not necessarily that he likes your friends, it’s that he wants an excuse to be closer to you, and he wants to be able to hear about you from the people who know you best. Especially if he makes friends with all of your friends and not with you, it could mean that he’s crushing.
With this scenario, make sure he’s not flirting with your friends. If he is, it could be that he genuinely likes one of them and not you. On the other hand, he could just be flirting in order to show you that he can impress other girls.
– Wikihow.com
