Guy advice? Is this true?

I hooked up with one my really good guy friends a few months ago. I was on a break with my bf at the time. The guy I hooked up with left back across the country and we talked for 3 weeks after. He was going super fast, sent me flowers and everything. I was even gonna go fly to see him. One day he told me he just wanted to stay good friends. I took it hard bc I was honestly ready to commit. I had to constantly get reassurance from him that we’d actually stay friends, which was a BIG mistake on my part. I finally told a few of our friends we share together what happened. His ex roommate told me he’s really liked me this whole time (4 years). He told me he honestly thinks it’s a good idea that we aren’t together bc LDRs are hard. He told me to just let him do his little thing (talking to girls on insta & leaving flirty comments) bc he honestly feels like we’ll be together in the future. I told them how worried I’d been that when he does come home, he won’t invite me to go hang out with all of them like he usually does. Both my friends told me he probably will still invite me to hang bc he’s not like that. They said he’ll most like just pretend like nothing happened.

That guy & I still interact. When we were talking, I’d send him memes all day long. Now I send maybe one every 1-3 days and he’ll like them or comment on them. He hasn’t liked any pics since we stopped talking on insta and earlier this week he finally did like one which honestly made me feel so good. Is this a good sign? Is what my friends are saying realistic? I just overthink way too much & I want to believe them!!!