I wanna talk about Han and Leia's relationship in empire strikes back. So I'm going to. Sorry.
In the beginning of the movie Han asks Leia very clearly multiple times if she likes him, saying that the reason she wants him to stay is because of her feelings about him BUT he only does this after he says goodbye and walks out. He only starts insisting that she has feelings for him after she follows him and tries to convince him to stay ("Han, we need you." "We need?" "Yes." "Well what about you need?")
Despite the fact that he says multiple times that he's leaving, she continues following him, pleading with him to stay, but not because she wants him to, but because she says that it's good for the rebellion is he does. You can especially see it in this interaction ("Come on, you want me to stay because of the way you feel about me." "Yes! You're a great help to us, you're a natural leader-" "No. That's not it.") where she seems to almost purposely twist his words to become unrelated to her own personal feelings towards him. During this whole interaction Han is just trying to get Leia to share how she feels about him.
Most of their relationship in the movie is about Leia hesitantly opening up to Han and admitting in some way that she likes him. This happens even before their first kiss when Han says "There's not enough scoundrels in your life". Leia responds that she likes "nice men" despite the fact that she still kisses him right after. After the kiss she leaves the moment Han turns his back though, likely in attempt to re-establish a boundry between them because she's uncomfortable with the fact that some personal feelings she had slipped through.
This continues throughout the movie, but there are small moments where this facade she has breaks, and she accepts small moments of affection or references to her own feelings. An interesting scene is when Han and Leia start talking about Lando and Han says "He's a card player, gambler, scoundrel. You'd like him."
Leia just responds with the shake of her head and says "Nice". This is an important moment because unlike their first kiss, she doesn't disagree that she likes scoundrels, therefore not disagreeing that she likes Han. It's small but it's the closest thing she has to admitting out loud that she likes Han before they reach Lando's gas mine.
When they do get there, she does accept Han's affections (holding his hand and letting him kiss her forehead) but she still doesn't admit anything out loud for a while. At one point Han says "Besides, we'll soon be gone" in reference to them leaving Lando's mining colony. Leia responds by saying "Then you're as good as gone" where she assumes that Han is still leaving, because she doesn't seem to recognize that he was really only leaving because she wouldn't admit her feelings, and it was a last ditch effort at getting her to admit something to him. In the first scene where he announces he's leaving he looks right at her when he's finished sharing that fact, because he was really only doing it to get a rise out of her.
This is all to say, he doesn't want to leave her, that was never the issue. Which is why he seems so disappointed when Leia says that (he doesn't respond at all). He thinks that at this point his feelings for her are clear, and that he doesn't want to leave her.
Han is very open about his feelings towards Leia, being the instigator for nearly every step in their romantic relationship. That's why the last scene in ESB with the two of them is so important. For the first time Leia starts something. She says "I love you." Her possible last words to Han are an admission of something she'd tried so hard to keep behind a wall of nuetrality towards Han. She finally admits she loves him. And Han responds "I know" because he knows her, and has always known that she loves him, but she had to be the one to admit it. He'd been clear with his feelings, and it would have to be her choice to reciprocate. Which she eventually did.
It could have been the last thing she ever said to him as well, which makes it all the more impactful because she decided it was more important to admit she loved him and break down that barrier she had than to watch him die without confessing. I just think that that's. Idk these two make me feel so much.
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