I led on a friend but I realized I don’t like him romantically

Please help me !!

A friend of mine who is in my friend group and class liked me, but I didn’t understand it until he asked me out, so then I said “let’s invite our other friends”, after that we stopped talking as much but stayed friends.

After some months, I was really confused as to if I also liked him or not and got to the conclusion that I liked him, so we started texting again (especially late at night) even tho my friends thought he wasn’t the right guy for me and that I wouldn’t be happy in a relationship with him (I thought it didn’t matter as long as we were comfortable with each other). I actually thought I liked him, I smiled when we wre texting, I sepnt more time preparing when I knew I would see him (so basically every day) and all these things. Iwanted him to make a move, but he is shy, so I tried to give him hints that I liked him and brought on the dating subject thinking that he would finally ask me out again, but he didn’t and tried to change the subject so I basically asked him out myself. We’ve tried to find a date we both could, but it’s been two weeks and we still haven’t gone out, but we are trying to find one.

The problem is I just realized I probably don’t actually like him romantically, while I‘d love to be friends. I’m still confused, it could be just the fear since this would be my first date ever and my first boyfriend ever. But I don't feel the butterflies when I see him.

I don’t know what to do: do I still go on the date with him to understand my feelings?

Do I tell him before anything can start?

Do I tell him in person or on the phone?

Do I tell him the truth even tho I’m still not 100% sure about it (I thought I liked you but I really don’t) or something like “I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship“, which would be a straight-up lie?

I feel really bad, my friends say it could be the fear talking and I should give it a try (we live only once, and I’m 16 and so is he), but I don’t think that would be fair to him and to me