Does age gap still matters in 2026?

I have a F28(single) friend from my class who is about 5 years older than me. We have been friends for past 16 months but lately for about 3-4 months we have become really close. Thought I never thought of her as romantically, but lately we have become really close, sharing our life problems and all personal matters which we don't share with anyone and I think I am developing feelings for her but she probably thinks of me as her little brother and I don't want her to get the wrong idea and hate me. Should I just keep chatting with her and continue our relationship as a true and trusted friend or should I say it out loud and destroy our friendship and be hated by her for rest of my life? I keep asking her frequently to set me up with someone my age and she was really interested but lately she has been ignoring my request so is that a sign or ...?

She stays in a hostel and as I am local, I help her by dropping her once in a while and we go to drink tea whenever we can. Could it be that she is using me for herself and I got the wrong idea?