He asks questions that go beyond the surface

'How was your day' is small talk. Anyone can ask it, and most people ask it without really wanting the full answer. 'Why did that meeting bother you so much?' is something else entirely — it requires that he was paying attention to your earlier mood, that he noticed something wasn't quite right, and that he cared enough to follow up. Curiosity about your inner life, not just your schedule, is one of the most reliable signals of real interest. The questions a person asks reveal the shape of what they want to know. Casual interest stays on the surface: what you do, where you've been, what you like. Real interest goes deeper — it wants to understand why you think the way you think, what shaped you, what you're still figuring out. He wants the version of you that nobody else gets. When his questions start feeling like they could only be asked by someone paying close attention, pay attention back.