Me (22F) and Him (24M), on-and-off for a year — ghosted twice, should I just walk away for good this time?

Okay, so this is a long story with a lot of emotions involved, but I’ll try to keep it short.

I met this guy (24M) on Hinge in May last year. We texted a little, nothing too deep, but once we met in person, the connection hit instantly—like our energies just danced together. He was 6’2″, funny, into the same music as me—basically, the kind of guy I hoped I’d end up with. After our first date, we kept meeting daily for a week with cute little dates. It felt magical.

Then, out of nowhere, he ghosted me. We even exchanged bracelets that morning, and then poof—no response the entire day. I spiraled, texting him, wondering what happened. That night around 1 a.m., he finally messaged: “Hey, shit happened at my house, my dad saw the hickey and lost it when he saw your pink hairband on my wrist.” I was relieved just to hear from him and told him he could’ve just let me know earlier—but I wished him well and told him to keep me posted.

And that was it. He never replied again. I kept texting for days, just trying to understand what went wrong. Meanwhile, he was active on socials, sending streaks like nothing happened. After about a week, I removed him from everything, but he was still living rent-free in my mind. I kept asking myself: What happened? What did I do? Was I too desperate?

2 months later, I gave in and sent another message asking directly what had happened. To my surprise, he replied. He apologized, said it wasn’t intentional, that he had feelings for me too, blah blah. We exchanged a few texts, but I could feel his energy pulling away again, so I left him on read and moved on.

Then months later, in December, he liked one of my stories. I ignored it, thinking it was random. But he kept liking everything I posted and started saving my snaps. Still, he never messaged. Fast forward to this July—I was pissed. Like, this man can like but not text? So I replied to one of his stories with a simple “wyd?”

To my surprise, he responded flirtatiously. One thing led to another, and we ended up meeting again—as if nothing had happened, like he didn’t ghost me for an entire year. It was unexpected but nice. He’d even spoke in future tense like “we’ll do this,” “we’ll meet tomorrow”—giving me hope again.

After that night, we exchanged a few texts, but it wasn’t consistent like before. Still, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Then I was left on delivered for 12 hours. My anxiety spiked—was I getting ghosted again? He finally replied the next day with a casual “hey” and a random reel, which honestly calmed me down. But he’d originally asked to meet that evening, and when I brought it up, he didn’t follow through. Instead, he texted again at midnight with another casual “hey.” That was it.

So I ghosted him this time. I’m not putting up with the same bs he pulled a year ago.

My question is: Do you think I made the right call by ghosting him back? Should I just cut him off completely and move on for good?

TL;DR:
22F met a guy (24M) last year, connected deeply, then he ghosted me. A month later, he apologized, then disappeared again. This year he reappeared, we met again, things seemed promising—but now he’s acting distant again. I ghosted him this time. Should I walk away for good?