Is this a joke?

So 3 years ago I met this guy through a friend and we really hit it off. From then on we talked everyday for hours on the phone. Sadly, we go to school hours away from each other. He came to visit and things were great, a couple months later he started dating this girl out of the blue. I was confused and hurt but months later I started dating someone else. Eventually they broke up and he began calling me everyday again. While we are both single and talking every day again he says we shouldn’t date and just be friends because it wouldn’t work since we are so far away but also says “he sees things being different once we graduate in May.” It seems no matter how many people we both date we end up coming back to each other. Does he really care and just not want to mess things up for the future or am I just a sucker?