<human>: Give me the gist of the text in a nutshell

I have a pretty big crush on this guy and we've been getting along really well. I got him to help me with a school assignment to get the opportunity to hang out one-on-one and since then we've basically been texting non-stop. He'll initiate conversations and it's not just surface-level either. We send walls of texts back and forth. All this to say, I'm quite confident that he likes me too.
However, he's very shy so things are moving quite slowly and I'm very impatient, haha. How do I speed this process up? I have no problem with just telling him I like him but others have told me that will emasculate him. So much for feminism.
<bot>: I have a crush on a shy guy and he likes me. He's taking a while to make a move - can I speed this up or should I just ask him out myself?