Best friend cuddles me and tells me i'm his other half but

Doesn't wanna date. Is it normal? I used to want to date him but now I don't know because it got exhausting. I'd say we should date and he'd say he doesn't want to but now it sounds like he's hinting. And it's weird because I basically gave up on the thought of dating him but now he's acting like this. Unless I'm wrong?

He cuddles more, he's grabbed my hand and held it while we were walking around a museum recently. He tells me I'm beautiful he never said that before he kinda would sort of say it but not. Like he'd say you look so good over and over again but now he says you look so beautiful. Also he says you're my other half and started turning down all his plans with friends just to hang out with me instead.

He used to stack up his schedule with friend meet ups now he's almost always texting or calling me saying we should hang out and we do and he doesn't even look at his phone anymore. He used to look at it and text his friends while with me but he doesn't anymore he has it put away and pays way more attention to me than before.