How close you already are changes what everything else means

The same behaviour means different things at different distances. Somebody you speak to every day has a hundred chances to show interest. Somebody you barely know has almost none, so anything at all from them is worth more.

How to read it

This is the part people leave out when they compare their situation to somebody else's story. A strong signal from a person you hardly speak to survived a much shorter window than the same signal from a person you see daily, which makes it worth more rather than less.

It also decides which moves are available to you. Between near-strangers there is nothing useful to do except create more contact. Between people who already talk most days, more contact changes nothing at all, and only a direct question moves anything.

When it means nothing

Closeness on its own is not evidence. Long friendships produce every surface signal on this list without any of the feeling underneath, and that is exactly why people stay inside them for years without ever finding out.

Your move

Work out which side of that line you are on before anything else. If you barely speak, your job is repetition. If you already talk most days, repetition is the thing you are hiding behind.