I’ve had a few experiences with guys who acted fairly disinterested only to seem sincerely hurt when I accepted that disinterest and moved on.

Often things would start out with me being open minded to them not wanting anything serious but also sharing that im a romantic and not afraid to try for something more if their feelings changed. We’d hang out for a month or two and they’d continue to act detached, rejecting any conversation about considering something exclusive and insisting we’re nothing special. At this point I’d accept their rejection and tell them I’m going to continue looking for the relationship I want and would start exploring other options. That’s when suddenly after acting as if they hadn’t cared for me much at all, they’d start begging me to reconsider. One got a irrationally angry and called me all sorts of names. One burst into tears, and said something along the lines of “I can’t believe you’d do this to me” and send me a long paragraph later about how he didn’t want to see me anymore as if I hadn’t already made it clear to him I was moving on.

To me it’s clear they were more emotionally invested than they admitted and didn’t expect me to take their words at face value. Has something like this ever happened to you and if so why were you not honest?