Once I had an acquaintance with whom we communicated on the Internet for several months, he fell in love with a girl who cosplayed a character from one of his favorite series, well, he admitted to me that he had been following her for about a year and dreamed of talking to her on the Internet, because he felt that he was in love, and then asked if he should try? I said I should at least try, but my advice broke his heart, she rejected him and called him a freak, then he got drunk and we didn’t discuss it anymore.
If anything, the girl was very beautiful.
That’s not romantic love, that is a parasocial relationship. On the other end of that coin, a cautious person won’t trust the vibes of someone coming at them from that direction. (Much like what happened here)
People can latch onto many things that give them those positive feelers, but it’s critical to not drown in those affections. Hope your buddy bounces back from that, maybe they need to get out more.