I, a 19-year-old female, met my boyfriend, who is 21 years old, through dating apps.

I've been in a relationship with my boyfriend for about a month now, and although it's still quite fresh, we're already facing numerous challenges that are causing me to doubt myself. This is my first relationship, so I lack any experience in navigating these situations. To complicate things further, we come from different cultural and religious backgrounds— I am deeply committed to my faith, while he identifies as an atheist. When we met at university, I felt a strong connection with him, as if we shared a lot in common. However, as we became more comfortable, he began to "change," or perhaps his true self started to emerge. In hindsight, I don’t think we experienced a real "honeymoon phase," and if we did, it was fleeting. Early on, I spotted dating apps on his phone. At that time, we were just getting to know each other, so I didn’t feel it was appropriate to raise the issue. He also invited me to places like clubs and shisha lounges that made me uncomfortable due to my personal boundaries. When I declined, he shrugged it off since we weren’t officially dating yet. A few days later, he asked me out, and at first, everything seemed fine. But then, things began to fall apart. He pressured me into doing something that went against my religious beliefs (it wasn't peer pressure; he simply offered me something and misrepresented it), which I found incredibly distressing. Shortly after, he disrespected my faith. I chose to overlook it at the time, but I made it clear that if it ever happened again, I would end the relationship, as it’s a serious issue for me. For context, we had agreed on abstaining from sex until marriage, which is important to me for both religious and personal reasons. I expressed that, even without the religious element, I still want to remain a virgin until marriage. During a visit to his house, I mentioned the dating apps I had seen, and he deleted them on the spot. Yet this week, I noticed those same two apps on his phone again (you can probably guess which ones). He initially claimed his friend had made him download them and then later said he was just trying to delete his account. This explanation seemed somewhat plausible because a friend of mine who uses one of those apps could no longer find his profile. However, she did discover him on Hinge with a photo taken just six days ago. When I confronted him, his story kept changing—first it was about his friends, then he forgot to delete it, and finally, he blamed it on being drunk. He turned the conversation around, saying, “If there’s no trust, there’s no relationship.” Despite all this, I have trusted him in many ways—allowing him to go to different cities and even frat parties. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that he’s not being honest with me. I’m conflicted about what to do: part of me thinks breaking up might be the best option, but I’m not quite ready to take that step. I also don’t want my kindness to lead to hurt. To his credit, he has altered some behaviors that I expressed concerned about. For instance, he no longer vapes in front of me and claims he wants to learn more about my culture and religion. He’s introduced me to all his friends, invited me to group hangouts, and even brought me to his friend’s frat house. His family is also aware of our relationship. My concern is that even though he promised me yesterday that I would never see those apps on his phone again and assured me he isn't communicating with anyone on them, I worry that his motivation is the lack of sex, despite us being intimate in other ways. My friends think I should end things, but I haven’t shared many details with them, so they don’t have the full story. Without that context, it’s difficult for them to offer objective advice, leaving me even more uncertain about my next steps.