Need a third person pov

So me 23F and my bf 25F have been together for about a year now, and things have been generally nice but the main issue between us is giving each other time since we both work full time. This issue is mainly from his side because his work is demanding and he lives with his family, my work is slightly chiller and i live alone so i got more time to kill that way, like no family responsibilities. We havent really been able to figure out a middle ground for this, i just crashout get annoyed then back to normal because what do i even do. But today also when he didnt text me back for a long time then i got a little upset he started apologising and i was just playing along acting as if im still upset but he did not try to make it upto me as hard as i wanted him to, he said sorry maybe like 2 times then asked if i wanted to talk or not then just went to bed. I confronted him about it that its okay if you were busy but i wasnt happy with your reaction, and he just said saying things i dont mean wont fly with him and i should say things to him directly but i dont know. I feel like i come across as needy a lot of times since i am comparatively free than him during the night. So the third person pov is how to overcome this issue? What could the middle ground be? And what can be done about the expectations mismatch for making it upto me like i do want him to try harder but it doesnt make sense but it makes me feel like i matter. Ugh so confusing