i need advice

About 10 months ago i started talking to a man after we followed each other on Instagram randomly. I knew this man years ago because we went to school together. He was really great to me and we started as friends. We decided to talk exclusively soon after. He would initiate facetimes everyday and would text me throughout the day. He would tell me i was beautiful and was very respectful of boundaries. He was just very sweet overall and also not experienced in dating. About a month in, we got into a major argument because he complimented another woman during a conversation . I got upset and lashed out on him. I have a lot of emotional baggage from my past relationship and made the mistake of oversharing those worries with him. We somehow got over that and continued talking. However, he got distant again so I called him out. he sent a long paragraph detailing why he felt the way he did and admitted to being wrong for not communicating. He said that the other reason for his distance was to study for an exam he’s been putting off for years for professional school. Earlier this year we met up for the first time because I flew to his city and it was the best weekend. The communication returned and he started calling me more, sent flowers for valentine’s day, and talked about wanting to meet in person again. Around May, idk if it was a coincidence because he got stressed from studying and work but basically I made the mistake of telling him about my ex trauma again. he was really warm and let me talk to him but a couple weeks later he told me he was locking in and started studying a lot. The romantic language stopped as did the calls and facetimes. Fast forward to now, he flew back into the city i live in, where he’s originally from to take the test. he’s also working while he’s here. I asked him if he wanted to grab a bite because i genuinely wanted to see him and he wasn’t making the move. He responded saying “not today, i am working. what were you thinking of getting?” idk if he genuinely has a lot going on and doesn’t have the capacity to be romantic or if there’s any hope for us. it honestly feels like a friendship and i’m grieving what used to be and i blame myself and him for his poor communication. I still really like him and I don’t wanna end things but the unknown terrifies me and I’m thinking of texting him to say we should end things. Im anxious about how he’ll respond or whether he’d fight for us. What should i do?