could he secretly like me back?

well, i'm really good friends with this guy. we have been friends since 7th grade and we are now in 9th grade. whenever i see him i always hug him and he doesn't just stand there, he puts his arms around me to hug me, and his hugs are amazing, especially since he's really tall. And today some kid asked us if we were going out and i told the kid, "of course not, he has a girlfriend, and if we were our hands would be like this" so i grabbed my friends hand and it didn't bother him at all. He walked me all the way to my bus and so when we were getting close to the bus we hugged, like as a way to say goodbye, but i didn't want to let go, so we were walking and hugging at the same time, so my friends from my bus started screaming out the window "are you two going out?" and then when we finally let go, i got on the bus and everyone started screaming,"yeah","whoohoo", and things like that. And we get along really well, i know a lot about him and he knows a lot about me.

And I like him a lot, I've liked him since like the middle of 8th grade.

So do you think that the reason why he doesn't mind that people say those things is because he secretly likes me back, or has slight feelings for me.

Thanks in advance to anyone who read and answered my question