Why does he like my stories but not my posts?

Reading this pattern comes down to what each action costs him. A story reaction is private in practice. It goes to you alone, it disappears, and nobody else is going to see him as having been interested. A post like stays attached to your grid and to his own activity, and people who know both of you may notice it. For a lot of men, especially early on, that visibility is the thing they hold back. He may be curious and still not want the public record yet.

That means the story reactions are your best signal of real attention, even if they're small. He chose to tap, he didn't have to. Notice whether his story reactions are consistent or only happen when you post something specific. If he reacts every time and never likes a post, he's paying attention and moving carefully. If the story reactions have stopped too, the feed was never the issue and the interest has faded.

The story is already a conversation opener, so treat the reaction as an invitation. Pick up the specific detail from the story he responded to, not the general fact that he responded. Something that refers to the actual thing you shared gives him an easy, low-pressure way to answer. That keeps the exchange about the content, and it doesn't ask him to explain his own behaviour.

If you want to shift the energy off the feed, ask him something that only you could ask given what he watched. A question about his plans, his opinion, or a small story from his own week works better than a comment about what he did or didn't like. The goal is to make the next step a real exchange of messages, which tends to show you more about his interest than any reaction count will.

Once there's a real conversation, the feed stops mattering much. A man who likes your stories but ignores your posts while also answering your messages with some substance is interested in you, just not in showing it publicly. A man who only ever reacts to stories and never replies to a direct message is keeping you at a comfortable distance, and that's information too.

Don't try to get him to like a post as a test. Tests like that tell you nothing except how much you wanted the like. Instead, check whether the conversation moves forward on its own, whether he asks you things back, and whether he suggests anything specific. Those are the signals that tell you where you stand.