Is it real or is he just using me

I have this mild crush on a coworker who is a few years younger. I'm in my early 30's, he's late 20's. We both work in a small team in a large international company, I'm the team lead but not his boss. He recently transfered to our department from another. We've had some flirty things going on for a while, for instance he would go out of his way to do nice things for me, and we would eat lunch together, share things. We have some hobbies in common in particular we both like to paint in our spare time and we would give each other feedback on our work. But here is where I doubt if it's reciprocated: a few months ago we had a major event in our company that we both had to attend and there were people from his old department that he went straight to and ignored me for the rest of the evening, did not even introduce me. I decided to not intrude and just stick to other people I knew but I had this strange feeling he was embarrassed about me (which in turn made me feel very embarrassed). I did ask him about it the next day and he got offended and demanded an apology from me (while he was behaving like a jerk to me). Since then we cooled off for a while but recently he started flirting again but just last week something similar happened at another function and I got ditched again but this time he was less of a jerk as he did not completly ignore me but it still felt familiar to last time.

I'm considering if he is just buttering me up because of my role and I should just write it off. Because on the other hand we do genuinely get along at work and also outside of work and I could easily transfer departments to avoid workplace conflicts and so could he but that of course is not something I would do at the drop of a hat for someone who might or might not like me. Sigh. I hate dating because it's hard to find mature men out there who are respectful as well as Individuals With an Interesting Character, but maybe I should just get back in the pool and cut my losses here. Any takes?