The 'Spider-Man' star was out and about Friday in L.A., walking through an alley with a pal as they made their way to Tom's parked car ... and a photog was waiting to chat him up about all the breakup buzz..

Dude tried congratulating TH on a new 'Back to the Future' gig -- which isn't real, BTW -- but then finally asked the obvious question ... are y'all broken up or not? Tom says "No, absolutely not." He doesn't elaborate further, but that's about as clear as he can be on this issue.

Of course, this all comes on the heels of what a lot of people took as red flags in the past couple weeks -- including Zendaya unfollowing everyone (Tom as well) ... not to mention the fact Tom and Zendaya haven't been photographed together in public in literally months.

Meanwhile, Zendaya herself was also out and about Friday -- we got video of her cruising around Culver City with her brother, Austin.

Unclear if they ended up buying anything, but as you can see ... they were pretty chipper on the way out as they headed back to their car, with Zen once again in the driver's seat.

Remember, Zendaya and Austin were photographed Wednesday as well -- driving around town and doing their own things ... solo. It is allowed when you're dating, but for what it's worth she was driving with her brother, and Tom was mobbin' around WeHo that night.

Fast-forward a few days, and they're still not together, but now ... Tom's saying they continue to be a couple.

Frankly, there's no smoking gun on them splitting up, anyway -- in fact, we'd been told by people with direct knowledge the duo spent NYE together. The fact they haven't been hanging out together in public these past couple weeks doesn't necessarily mean they're done.

It just means they've got individual lives -- plus, Zendaya and Tom are notoriously private as it is ... so this might just be par for the course.