Should I confess to my friend?

Pardon the forthcoming walls of text.I posted on /r/relationships a few days ago, and some other stuff happened, but I want to consult /r/gay too, just for a second perspective.Original post: http://ift.tt/2dvLGwM: I'm not out to my friend. My friend (unknown preferences) and I often send <33s and "i love you"'s in texts. Somebody thought we were actually in a relationship.Some more concrete background: Alex (a filler name for him) isn't really obviously stereotypically straight or gay. He doesn't talk about girls (or boys) at all. He doesn't even seem to have any desire to be in a relationship. He doesn't seem like the type who would even send <3s or "i love you" in texts at all, but I suppose I'm mistaken. I'm also not the most perceptive when it comes to this kind of thing either.In the past few days, a few more things have happened.We shared food (eating from the same plates and sharing bites on a pastry). Would that be "normal" for two guys who are not dating?I slightly pushed the conversation towards dating, asking what he would do if somebody asked him out. He said that it would depend on who. Then, when we were talking about what we would do if we were asked out, I said that I might run away and cry. He then asked "what if I asked you" and jokingly got mad at how I said I would run away and cry. At that moment, I wanted to follow with that question myself, but I couldn't muster the courage to.Since I've been hanging around with him a lot (and bringing him along when I hang out with other friends), one of the girls in my friend group has somehow managed to get a crush on him. She knows that I'm gay, but (probably) does not think that I like him or that anything like that could be going on. However, she said she doesn't want to get in a relationship and wants to let the crush die naturally. Apparently, while they were discussing this (I wasn't there), two other people thought that Alex was gay, so they decided to ask him the next day. When they ended up asking him, he said that he wasn't, but I feel like that would be something he would be uncomfortable answering truthfully if it weren't the case, so I'm torn on it.I spent a fair amount of time thinking about it, and I came to the conclusion that yes, I am heavily crushing on Alex, but I have no clue how I should move forward.I want to tell him (just to get it out there. I'm not even expecting anything), but at the same time, I'm satisfied with how our current relationship is, and if he takes it badly (which there is the possibility since he is an observing Christian and somewhat socially conservative, even though he himself probably isn't homophobic), the entire friendship might just fall apart.I'm going to have the weekend mostly alone with him (he's coming home with me for the holiday), so I will hopefully be able to try to indirectly get some more information from him then.Does anybody have any ideas on what I should ask / do? I know I'm being a complete wimp by not just going up to him and saying it bluntly, but I really don't want to take the risk.