@Stat has provided a detailed answer. In my short answer I'll show briefly in somewhat different way what is the similarity and difference between r and r2.
r is the standardized regression coefficient beta of Y by X or of X by Y and as such, it is a measure of the (mutual) effect size. Which is most clearly seen when the variables are dichotomous. Then r, for example, .30 means that 30% of cases will change its value to opposite in one variable when the other variable changes its value to the opposite.
r2, on the other hand, is the expression of the proportion of co-variability in the total variability: r2=(covσxσy)2=|cov|σ2x|cov|σ2y. Note that this is a product of two proportions, or, more precise to say, two ratios (a ratio can be >1). If loosely imply any proportion or ratio to be a quasi-probability or propensity, then r2 expresses "joint probability (propensity)". Another and as valid expression for the joint product of two proportions (or ratios) would be their geometric mean, prop∗prop−−−−−−−−−√, which is very r.
(The two ratios are multiplicative, not additive, to stress the idea that they collaborate and cannot compensate for each other, in their teamwork. They have to be multiplicative because the magnitude of cov is dependent on both magnitudes σ2x and σ2y and, conformably, cov has to be divided two times in once - in order to convert itself to a proper "proportion of the shared variance". But cov, the "cross-variance", shares the same measurement units with both σ2x and σ2y, the "self-variances", and not with σxσy, the "hybrid variance"; that is why r2, not r, is more adequate as the "proportion of shared variance".)
So, you see that meaning of r and r2 as a measure of the quantity of the association is different (both meanings valid), but still these coefficients in no way contradict each other. And both are the same whether you predict Y~X or X~Y.