Does He Like Me And Does He Have A Girlfriend Or Not?

[Unnie]

I feel so silly asking this question considering how old I am, but I am in a huge dilemma and would like a couple of different perspectives on this. I am a 23-y-o girl that teaches English in an online language school and he is a 26-y-o Taiwanese student of mine. I guess it would be good to mention that in this school students can choose teachers they want to study with. We met 5 months ago and it started as a normal student-teacher relationship. The more we talked (1-2 a week) the more I seemed to like him and the more we went to the friendship phase. A bit more than a month ago I changed my job but I still have the account in the school and once a week he asks me to open a class for him so we can talk. To summarize the things he did that confuse me:
-he took a trip and he messaged me saying he is in Japan so he cannot take the class that week (none of my other regular students message me outside the class time, it's very unusual);
-when I finally saw him and ask him whom he went with he said one part with family and the other with friends, never mentioned a GF;
-a few classes ago he asked me to exchange SNS info with him (even though it's forbidden);
-on his Instagram I saw a couple of pictures of a girl in a slide, sitting on a bench and the other one eating dinner at a table across him with the caption "all beautiful picture"(Google translated from Mandarin), there weren't any cute comments or hearts or anything that would indicate anything romantic going on between them though;
-also two pictures where he put his arm casually on her shoulder, like for a hug but it looked more like he was resting it on her shoulder with the caption "happy birthday" the other one was from the trip in Japan (he went with her and two other guys, that's why I don't know if she's his GF or not) but he literally barely touched her shoulder;
-he's always cute and smiley when he talks to me, after the last class he messaged me to say he's looking forward to seeing my new hair colour (I was supposed to go to the hairdresser's after our class), we chatted for a bit and then he left me on "read" on the last message (in which I didn't ask him anything though);
-when I told him about two of my colleagues finding love in this school and going steady with them he asked me "But aren't they too far away?" and he kinda cut me off with that question from something else I wanted to say because I was embarrassed I even mentioned that. More-less that would be all. I apologise it's this long and borderline childish but I dunno what to think and I like him loads, that is why I analyse every single thing he does or says and I am not the girl that easily likes someone like that lol... Any kind of response would be appreciated! :) P. S. I'm sorry if I've put this in the wrong category.

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure what SNS info is: but why not ask him if that's his girl in the photo ? Seems a normal innocent thing to ask.

[Gizmonster]

I'm also unsure what SNS means??

You could make a statement along the lines of, "your girlfriend looks cute in that piccie", to which he'll probably say, "thanks", or that it isn't his girlfriend .... then you could simply reply that you just assumed he had a girlfriend. He'll probably tell you either way then and you haven't asked him directly if he has a girlfriend or not :)

[Unnie]

SNS means "social network service", something like Facebook, Instagram etc. :) And I was thinking of asking him that but there is a problem. First, it's forbidden to ask personal questions in the company (not that I care too much about that though, I've already broken most of the rules), but I also don't want to weird him out and lose him as a student if that turns out to be his girlfriend. I will have a class with him either on Monday or Tuesday and I'm banging my head on how to slyly ask him if he's single or not and I haven't thought of something innocent enough yet. XD I feel like such a child lol. Thank you for your replies, I really do appreciate it!

[spathiphyllum]

It sounds like you found a cute crush, but it doesn't sound that he could be a life companion. I would find someone who chases you for you.

[spathiphyllum]

If you're teaching him English, simply get onto relationships. IE, family, mum dad brother, then go onto partners wifes etc.. then just ask him!

[Unnie]

That is actually a great plan! But unfortunately I already asked him about his family members back when I still didn't have a crush on him... I thought of asking him something along the lines of: "Are you going to spend the New Year's Eve with your GF?" Sounds innocent enough to me. Also, you never know, if he's The One maybe things can change and I could move there. It's difficult but those things happen, right? :)

[spathiphyllum]

They sure do happen.. And yes, that sounds like an innocent enough question. Maybe even, "will you be getting a NYE kiss".. Gives him the option to say something along the lines of "as long as it's with you" ;)

[Unnie]

Oh, I am not brave enough to say that! XD But it's a great idea, I might try something along those lines. Thank you for the advice! ^^

[spathiphyllum]

No worries, good luck