Can I consider him a real friend now?

I assume you wanted an answer to this but no one has addressed. I will say I don't really know how to answer this because I don't know what a real friend is to you.

I had a friend in my past whose idea of friendship was that I do everything he wanted me to do in terms of activities (mainly gaming) even if I didn't like those activities. If I said I don't like that activity and backed out he acted like I wasn't his friend which is odd because I thought our friendship was defined by us being able to open up and mutually share good and bad experiences in life that we wouldn't necessarily share with anyone. I was the one friend of his who stood by him at his mother's funeral amongst a group of gamer friends but in the end he didn't seem to appreciate that or realize that was something special. He would rather be with the gamers.

So it became clear to me that we were definitely on a different page in terms of what friendship meant.

Anyway I would call a "real friend" someone you can open with and share stuff like this who also can share their vulnerabilities back with you. So in opening up like this you demonstrated a trust in him. His responses sound nice and supportive, but I would also want him to share something vulnerable too if I was to call him a "real friend".

Of course you set your own standards. One of the problems that depressed people can run into with "friends" is a non-balance in terms of negative sharing. Person A goes "oh my life sucks because of x, y, z" and Person B eventually gets tired of it. It becomes draining. As people who fit into Person A we have to be sensitive to this dynamic. Person B may even complain to person C about how Person A does nothing but complain about their life. Person A has to find a balance of joking around and being positive and doing positive activities together like motivating one another to work out.

So I try to keep things balanced and equitable. Maybe I'm not the best at it, but I am definitely conscious of this dynamic. Had another "friend" years ago who came up to me at the office and started talking to me about girl issues he was having at school. I listened and supported him by offering some pointers about how he could approach the situations he was having problems with. Helped him out of some other issues. Remember one time he called me crying on the phone and then wanted to tell me about how he was physically abused by his father. I was always there to support him.

But ultimately that wasn't reciprocated. I had a health problem back then that was pretty serious and I was bummed out about it. I remember calling him just to talk just to talk to someone as I felt lonely and isolated. He told me was on a job but would get back to me. He never did. I was so pissed. Of course this is kind of recurring pattern for me. I bend over backwards to play the therapist for people in life and when my life hits a particularly rough patch these people are not there for me.

So don't be like those people. If this guy comes to you with problems it's your turn to be his friend and the shoulder he cries on.