would this be considered cheating

my (ex) boyfriend and i dated for about 6 months and broke up for a month with zero contact, we began talking again and after a few weeks it became like we were dating. we were doing sexually things, talking, going to events together etc. but it wasn’t made a official again until two months later. i ended up seeing messages of him sending to other girls calling them cute a week before we were official again but im just so confused — he was telling me how he loved me the whole time we weren’t “together” and we were acting like a couple but he said he didn’t cheat because we weren’t official and we were still working things out. im just heartbroken over it because he was messaging those girls while i was seeing him every other day and don’t know if i have the right to feel cheated on