Am I handling this wrong?

There's a girl I've gotten quite close to and I genuinely care about her a lot.

I've liked her for a while, and she knows that. The first time we spoke about it, she told me she didn't really see us going down a romantic path.

We stayed close after that. I didn't want to disappear from her life just because she didn't reciprocate my feelings, and honestly, I still wanted to be there for her and treat her well.

Recently I took her out for dinner. We had a good night, but the topic came up again and she told me, for the second time, that she doesn't see us moving in a romantic direction.

I told her I understood.

I also told her that I don't want her to feel stressed or guilty about the way I treat her. If I choose to take her somewhere, get her something, check in on her, or generally treat her well, that's my decision. I don't want her thinking that she owes me a relationship because of it.

And I meant that. But I'd be lying if I said it doesn't hurt.

I still like her. Part of me obviously wishes things were different. At the same time, I don't want to become the guy who thinks, "If I'm good enough to her for long enough, eventually she'll change her mind."

She has told me twice. I heard her.

I'm not angry at her and I don't think she has done anything wrong. I also don't want to suddenly become cold towards someone I genuinely care about just because she doesn't feel the same way.

I think what I'm struggling with is where the line is between caring about someone without expecting anything back and quietly hurting yourself by continuing to give someone certain level of treatment when they've made it clear they don't want you as their partner.

Maybe I'm posting this partly because I want opinions.

But mostly I think I just needed somewhere to say it out loud.

Has anyone been in this position before? Did you manage to stay genuinely close friends, or did you eventually realise you needed to distance yourself?