Did my teacher have interest in me or am I simply delusional?

In my senior year of high school, I had this English teacher who was very attractive and who I had developed a crush for. In the beginning of the year, I didn’t have a lot of friends and so I would begin hanging out in his classroom for lunch and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary as he was popular amongst students and others would also go in for lunch as well so I wasn’t alone. But, once I begin talking to him and getting to know him, I eventually begin developing a crush.

I would go out of my way to ask him how his day was going, what his plans for the weekends were and I’d even sit by his desk to be closer to him and this eventually led to us beginning other conversations. I’d get personal a lot of the time after I broke the ice, I’d talk about parental issues and other personal issues and then he began sharing personal issues and his own parental issues with me as well. We’d also have deep conversations that normally wouldn’t occur between a teacher and a student in the first place. I’d say a boundary was crossed as he was sharing personal things with me and vice versa.

It wasn’t until the beginning of second semester where things started to get intense as he was going through a break up and that led us to get closer. After he had picked himself up from being sad about it, we started to make playlists for each other and he even followed me on Spotify which he didn’t do with other students. Other students would recommend him music and make playlists for him as well but he only made playlists for me and he had only followed me on Spotify as well. We never told anyone and he was a bit hush, hush on this as well as it isn’t typically something a teacher should be doing with any student.

With this, I started to develop actual feelings and I would begin flirting with him to see how he’d react. I would tell him I liked his outfits, that he looked good or that he was glowing and he’d always blush and giggle at these comments and never once told me that it wasn’t appropriate even though they were considering I was his student. I’d write him sticky notes and hide them for him to find and he said he would put them in his car. I would show him couple memes and sometimes I’d say “Look that’s us,” and he’d laugh and turn red as well.

One time our school‘s baseball team was playing at a stadium outside of school and he attended as well as I. I went with a friend and we said hi to him and left to our seats when we saw him looking for us. He then sat behind me and talked to only me and our hands even brushed and he stayed there with me for about 30 minutes and even offered to buy me something which I kindly turned down. He’d also tell me things like how he looks for my work and bases everyone grade off of it (meaning my work was the standard).

There were also times where we’d have prolonged eye contact with each other and it led to a bit of tension between us. My table was the one of the one’s in the front of the classroom, so our table would joke around with him a lot as he was close. I noticed that whenever someone made a joke with him and he would find it funny, he’d look for my eyes to laugh with me. At lunch when people would come to his desk to talk to him and sort of disrupt our conversations, he would become quiet with them until they’d leave and then he’d begin talking to me. It was safe to say, I was his favorite student and everyone knew that as it was obvious.

There was also a period of time where he’d buy me my favorite drink and stock it up in his mini fridge he had in the classroom and would give me one a couple of times out of the week and he’d only ever get my favorite flavor because he knew it was the one that I liked. He’d also give me note cards and other things in my favorite color because he knew it was my favorite. Before I graduated, he asked me to meet me in his class after school and he gave me key chain of my favorite animal and even got me a vinyl of one of my favorite albums and gave me a long speech about how incredible I am and how he wish he had someone like me while he was going to school.

I am now graduated and I have always wondered if I was delusional, too deep into infatuation that I made myself believe he was interested in me, if he actually was interested in me, or if I was simply his favorite student. What do you think?