If these creatures can experience pain in the same conceptual way we do: they painfully clipped the ants legs and they didn’t return them to normal. Those ants were in hell.
Else: it was painless and the ants still had stump legs for the rest of their existence.
Which is why the meme is “Haha funny tall ants are dumb” instead of the slightly less fun “Ants without legs are confused af”
Well if you want to make it easier to be alone, next time you see him look him dead in the eye and say “Fuck off”. He won’t try anything after that and you can go back to being alone if that’s what you need. No point worrying about whether someone is attracted to you if you have zero intent on following up (even as a friend) - burn the bridge and save yourself the worry.