thin line between bashful and creep?
Let’s say you’re in 8th grade, staring at a cute girl all the time but clueless what to do. You could construe that as creepy when the kid is just shy and awkward. As that guy ages, the scale tips increasingly in the creepy direction, though he’s still just awkward and clueless.
Two movie examples of staring people are “Spiderman Homecoming” and “Love Actually,” in the latter a female stares at her male colleague but is terrified to do anything about it.