Sometime later that Sunday, a sense of normalcy returned, and Zelda was once again able to look at Midna without it being accompanied by an aching feeling in her chest and stomach. She was not sure what had brought the pain on in the first place, but she found that she didn't care for the reasons, instead choosing to simply be happy that she and Midna could walk to rehearsal together after class while chatting as they had always done, the silence between them that had characterised most of Sunday morning finally gone.

As neither Cremia nor Anju were involved in the scene and didn't have to be there, it was just the two of them sitting next to each other as Thelma went over her plans and expectations for the session. Technically, Zelda didn't really have to be there either, but when Midna had asked her to come and keep her company—seemingly forgetting her resolve to do well in class in the process as she had done so by sending her a note during math class—Zelda had said yes without hesitating for even a moment.

It seemed that she wasn't the only one who had decided to come to act as moral support. While everyone where busy getting into position, Zelda heard someone sit down next to her, claiming Midna's now empty chair. When Zelda looked over to see who else had decided to be there, she saw Mipha looking back at her.

"Hi," Mipha said, greeting her with a small smile. Zelda returned the gesture as Mipha continued, "I thought I would see you here as well."

"Oh, I'm not in this scene—" Zelda began, but Mipha cut in.

"I know. If you were, you would also be a bit late seeing as everyone else is already either on stage or getting ready to go on on their cue," Mipha said, waving her hand at Zelda, "but you are here with Midna, right?"

"Yeah," Zelda said with a nod while pointing towards herself, "she asked me if I wanted to come with her to keep her company, so here I am."

"Bit of a weird reason when she is going to be quite busy throughout this entire session," Mipha commented, "she has two entire songs, doesn't she?"

"She does. Final Hours and Song of the Hero."

Mipha nodded. "Yeah, I think I have heard Link hum along to Final Hours more times than I can count over the last couple of weeks. You should have seen him when we went on a date to Kakariko last week—it was just the soundtrack to Skyward repeating nonstop everywhere we went. Farore, had I not loved him, I would probably have asked him if he couldn't find another musical so that we could get a break from this one. I love the music but…" she made a clicking noise with her tongue, "it can get a bit much sometimes."

"You two are dating?" Zelda asked. She supposed that she shouldn't be surprised given how close she had seen Mipha and Link be, but she had always just assumed that they were friends.

"Yes, and we have been since our first year here. That's also why I haven't gotten sick of the song already, if I didn't love him, I don't think I would be here during you guys' rehearsals, I would just show up when it was time for costuming."

"Oh," Zelda said, her voice trailing off. She was not sure how to respond to that. Looking over at where Midna was standing, the other girl waving at Zelda when she noticed her glance, Zelda was almost entirely sure that even if she had not gotten the role of Hylia, even if she had not been involved in the musical at all, she would still agree to watch the rehearsal sessions without hesitation, had Midna asked her to.

"Yeah, I know, I know," Mipha laughed, "it sounds bad when I say it like that, but I swear, I do actually like this musical, I just also like some change from time to time so I don't think I would be able to learn every song and then spend weeks trying to understand the blocking and having to memorise all of my lines, so kudos to you guys for doing that."

Zelda didn't get the chance to respond as the sound of Thelma shushing everyone made them look up.

"Okay," Thelma said as the room went quiet, "this is a longer scene, but we don't have enough time to wait until for a Saturday to rehearse all of these, so we will just have to do our best and try to remain focused throughout this entire session, and then I'm sure it will all be fine. Now, what I want everyone to focus on during this scene is remembering your lines. There are a lot of dialogues and even a speech delivered by Demise," she gestured towards Link who gave her a confident grin, "so just do your best."

After her talk with Mipha, Zelda couldn't help but keep an eye on Link as well as Midna while the scene played out in front of her. He was standing up there, and even though Zelda normally knew him as someone happy, carefree, and kind, his solo during Final Hours was enough to make her instinctively want to move away a little, to get as far away from the demons her fellow students were trying to portray. Next to her, meanwhile, Mipha seemed impressed more than anything, smiling widely and tapping along to the rhythm of the song.

Finally, Song of the Hero began. Zelda couldn't keep a smile of her face as the slight reprise of The Legendary Hero washed over her, Midna advancing towards Link's Demise while the song rose in intensity before it all came to a conclusion as everyone joined in on the last verse.

Thelma had barely given them her thoughts of their performance—stressing the good parts while still pointing out how there had been a couple of times where people had either not remembered to go on stage in time or had accidentally been in the way of others—before Mipha jumped out of her seat, leaving Zelda behind as she ran over to where Link was getting down from the stage.

Zelda saw how Link smiled at her while reaching out and lifting Mipha up before twirling her around. They leant in for a kiss just as Midna came back over, sitting down next to Zelda again.

"So?" Midna asked, and Zelda tore her gaze away from where Link and Mipha where laughing at each other to instead look over at Midna who was practically beaming at her. "What did you think about the scene?"

"Uh," Zelda began, trying to buy herself some time to think of something, "it was good. You were pretty intense while threatening Demise and Link delivered a wonderful performance of Final Hours."

Midna nodded. "Yeah, he's pretty good at that. It's a good thing I knew him beforehand, if not, I think I might have been just a little bit scared of him."

"Really?"

"Really." Midna grinned at her before motioning towards Link and Mipha who had gone to sit in the chairs on the other side of the circle, deeply absorbed in their conversation. "You wouldn't think he could play the part of a demon if you looked at him now. I don't know how he does it, but he's definitely able to pull it off—you know, last year, he played the wizard of Oz, and he did pretty well there too, even if the wizard isn't frightening the same way Demise is supposed to be."

Zelda nodded along to Midna's words, trying to pretend that her reasons for having looked over at Mipha and Link was simply Link's talent and not the little sting of jealousy that hit her each time Mipha referred to how she and Link were dating, jealousy at the way that Mipha knew where she was standing in regards to the person she was in love with.

Her feelings both confused and saddened her. Zelda knew she was not in love with Link, she knew that was not why she envied Mipha and her relationship with him. But if that wasn't the source, the reasons for of her feelings, then what was?

She looked down at her hands, fidgeting in her chair as Midna continued to tell her about the musicals the school had put on in the past.

When they met up with Anju and Cremia for dinner, Zelda had not made any progress in regards to figuring out her feelings. Though she had hardly had any time in between returning to her room, attempting to make time to finish at least some of her homework before having to give up and realise that there was no way she was able to stay focused on the task at hand, Zelda had done her best to try to analyse the way her feelings had changed during rehearsal.

Although she had tried her hardest, she had not been able to pinpoint exactly what it was that had made her suddenly unable to look at Mipha and Link without letting the ugly feeling of jealousy take over. But the more Zelda thought about it, the more instances of it she remembered; the way she had been overjoyed when given the news that she and Midna would play the Hero and Hylia respectively, a joy that Zelda had a nagging suspicion didn't only stem from the happiness that landing a role in the show would bring along, the way she had always worked with Midna when they had to pair up in class.

Her reaction to Ruto's invitation for Midna to join her in going to the cinema.

As she remembered it all, Zelda could only come up with one explanation that could provide a reason for it all. But it just didn't make sense. She would have known it if that was the case, would not have needed to analyse her feelings like this, or at least Zelda hoped that was the case. If she was right… No, she refused to let herself think about it, it would mean risking her friendship with Midna if she did.

So Zelda shoved the nagging suspicion for the source of her feelings into the back of her mind and forced herself to conclude that she was just tired and that everything would be better and easier to cope with once she had gotten a chance to get some rest.

Plastering a smile on her face, she slipped into the chair across from Anju and next to Midna. She was not hungry at all, but given all of her thoughts, Zelda was almost entirely sure that it was only because of nerves that she had lost her appetite, so she forced herself to go join the others at dinner even if she mostly wanted to hide in her room until all of the confusion had disappeared again, leaving her with a crystal-clear idea of who she was once more.

"Zelda, are you listening?" Anju's voice pulled Zelda back into the present.

Looking up from her plate, Zelda shot her friend an apologetic look. "No, I'm sorry; I was just a bit distracted. What did you say again?"

"I asked you how rehearsal went," Anju repeated.

Zelda glanced over at Midna, and tried to ignore the way her stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies, fluttering around inside of her. "I thought it went great—you should have seen Midna, she was amazing."

"Aw thanks, Zelda." Midna reached out, throwing an arm around Zelda's shoulders, and Zelda froze, suddenly too aware of how both Anju and Cremia was looking at her. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Everything was fine; everything was exactly as it had been a week ago. Forcing herself to sit still, Zelda listened as Midna continued on. "Especially for not mentioning how I almost bumped into Riju during the part between the two songs," she looked over at Anju and Cremia, gesticulating wildly as she told the story, "imagine, I was standing up there, focused on hitting the notes and the fact that I was supposed to move towards Link, and then suddenly, Riju was standing right in front of me, and I had to veer to the side to avoid hitting her."

"What part of the blocking did you forget?" Cremia asked.

Midna pointed her fork at her, the piece of lettuce not managing to look particularly threatening. "For your information, the possibility of Riju being the one who forgot was also present." Cremia stared at her with a deadpan look, making Midna add more to the explanation. "Okay, maybe I forgot that I was supposed to twirl around when I passed Demise before continuing on, but it wasn't that big of a mistake—I could have been so close to getting my own Anju-moment."

"Oh, Din no," Anju laughed, "please tell me that we are not going to refer to every mistake regarding the blocking as that from now on."

"I'm not saying we are, it's just that I'm hoping to make it become a thing!"

Cremia leant in over the table, and punched Midna lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, Anju doesn't deserve that," she said, though she grinned through it all.

"Who says anything about whether or not she deserves it? This is a question of how funny it was, and I think it was pretty hilarious to see Anju and Ruto accidentally walk right into each other and almost fall over," Midna countered, gesturing towards Anju with her fork.

Anju hid her smile behind her hand as she tried to remain serious.

Meanwhile, Zelda had gone back to staring down at her plate, trying so hard to not focus on the mention of Ruto's name that it wouldn't have surprised her if she turned out to develop some hidden magical ability in the process. Or at least, she couldn't help but hope so. If she suddenly achieved laser-sight, she could burn through the plate and have a reason to excuse herself and go back to her room, a reason that didn't involve telling Midna about the feelings she had pent up inside, closing the door on them and moving a sofa in front of it just to be sure the door would not be forced open by the sheer pressure of everything inside. But now, it seemed that it had finally become too much for a single sofa, and the thought of having to deal with it all on top of the musical seemed like such a daunting task that Zelda would rather have dealt with something such as superpowers. At least it would be something tangible, something where she could calmly tell herself whether or not she possessed any powers. Feelings were overwhelming and confusing and she would have preferred to not have to deal with them on top of the musical.

In front of her, Zelda could hear how Midna, Anju, and Cremia were still discussing whether Anjuing could be the verb they would use to describe the act of messing up the blocking of a musical. It didn't seem like any of them had noticed how silent she was. Zelda didn't know how to feel about it, she had done her best to hide her inner turmoil after all, but it did hurt a bit to know that no one noticed it.

"Guys," Zelda said, interrupting their discussion, making all three of her friends look over at her, "I don't really feel that well so I think I'll just go to my room."

"Of course. Do you want me to come with you?" Midna said, already placing her knife and fork down on her plate as she got ready to get up.

But Zelda shook her head. "No, it's not that serious, my stomach just hurts a little," at least that wasn't a lie, "but thank you for the offer, though."

Before any of them had a chance to ask for any specifics as to what was wrong, Zelda had pushed her chair away from the tabled and picked up her plate, leaving the group moments later. She could hear the worried whispers behind her as she walked over to place the used tableware on the table in the middle of the room where the students on cleaning duty would later come to collect it, before she headed out of the dining hall and up towards her dorm.

Once she was inside and was absolutely sure that the door was closed behind her, Zelda threw herself onto her bed and stared up into the ceiling, trying to make her brain calm down a little by following the lines the paintbrush had created back when the wooden boards had been painted a dull, white colour.

What was she doing? She didn't want people to get suspicious and start to suspect anything, and yet she had caused a fuss in the dining hall. It wouldn't surprise her if her friends weren't the only ones wondering what was wrong with her and why she had left so suddenly, so why had she done it? Maybe she actually wanted them to notice.

Zelda toyed with the thought of telling her friends what was going on. The little part of her that was still capable of logical reasoning told her that it would be fine, reminding her of what had happened when she had admitted to her friends how much the thought of being on a stage scared her, and repeating the fact that literally all of her friends were into girls as well, so the risk of them reacting negatively in anyway was as close to non-existent as it could be, as long as Zelda did not include the fact that she was not exactly sure about anything regarding herself and Midna at least. But that wasn't the reason she wasn't telling anyone, Zelda knew that. She just wasn't sure what the real reason was.

There was a knock on the door.

She barely had time to run around to see who had caused the sound before Anju entered the room, an apologetic smile on her lips as she slowly closed the door behind her, careful not to make any noise.

"I'm sorry," Anju said, "I know you said that you didn't need anyone to come with you, but it looked like you needed someone to come and check up on you."

If Zelda had not been dead-tired, she might have felt compelled to snort at that. Yeah, she did need someone to check up on her, but mostly, she needed to figure out what was going on with her and her feelings. But seeing as she could barely find the energy to sit up in her bed, she simply nodded at Anju.

"And, I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but you kind of had a weird expression on your face almost every time Midna said something at dinner, so I thought that perhaps it would be better I was the one to go and make sure you were okay," Anju continued, and Zelda felt her stomach sink. So someone had noticed after all.

But wasn't that also what she had wanted? Zelda supressed a groan. Nayru, she couldn't make sense of any of her feelings anymore.

"So," Anju said and walked over to sit down on her bed, "would you mind telling me what is wrong? Because I'm pretty sure that it's more than just a stomach-ache."

Looking back up at the ceiling so that she would not have to look over at Anju, Zelda made a noise that could both be interpreted as confirming Anju's words as well deny them. "It is. But… I'm not really sure exactly what is… wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"There's just this… thing between me and Midna—well, I'm not sure if Midna sees it as well, but I do, and it's confusing, and I don't like it, but at the same time I kind of do."

"How so?" Anju asked, leaning forward on the bed, and suddenly, Zelda got the feeling that Anju already had an idea about what she was talking about. How she wished Anju would share it with her and bring her some clarity.

"I don't know when it started, but it's definitely been there since… since summer, maybe also before that," Zelda admitted as she tried to think back and remember how long there had been something hidden beneath the friendly conversations she had shared with Midna, all of the times they had called each other in the middle of the night to talk about nothing and everything, "but it didn't really starts until a few weeks ago, and I didn't pay it any attention until the incident with Ruto."

"We are talking about when she asked Midna out on a date, right?" Anju asked. "Not about how she and I bumped into each other during rehearsal?"

That finally succeeded in bringing a smile to Zelda's face. "No, it's about the date. I don't know how to describe it, but I just… I don't know, but I didn't like the thought of the two of them together like that, and then, today, I was talking with Mipha and she was telling me about Link—apparently they're dating—and when I saw them together, I was jealous, but I don't understand why because I'm definitely not in love with Link, so I don't know…" Zelda let the sentence trail off, looking over at Anju, searching for both an answer and validation in her expression.

Anju was quiet for such a long time that Zelda began to fear she had said something to anger her.

"Will you please say something, Anju, I need to know what's going on. If you think you know it, please tell me," Zelda asked, feeling slightly pathetic as she asked another person to make sense of her feelings for her.

"I don't know, Zelda," Anju said, rubbing the back of her neck, "to me, it sounds like you're in love with Midna."

And suddenly, the weight on the door was too much, and it pushed the sofa Zelda had so painstakingly moved to block the opening far away, letting the emotions come pouring out.

Love

Could she be in love with Midna?

Could she be in love with her best friend?

Instinctively, Zelda thought to reject the idea and assure Anju that there was another explanation, but her mind kept being blank, not offering her any help.

"Do you really think that?" she finally whispered.

Anju shrugged. "I mean, I can't tell you whether or not you are in love with Midna, you are the only one who can do that, but sometimes you do come off… a bit like you are in love with her"

"But I can't be. It could ruin our friendship if I was—it could ruin my friendship with all of you!" she looked over at Anju, who shot her a quizzical look.

"Zelda, I think you might be overthinking this a bit. First of all, you said yourself that you don't know if you are in love, so maybe this actually turns out to be nothing, and even if it isn't, I can promise you that it won't change anything." Anju paused, glancing up towards the ceiling. "Well, maybe that was not the best word, seeing as it would probably change something, at least for you. But it wouldn't ruin your friendship with any of us, so don't you dare think it will."

"Maybe," Zelda said, already regretting how she had not instantly attempted to dismiss the reasoning, "but it isn't even that relevant, I'm not in love with Midna, so as long as we don't tell her about this conversation, everything will remain the same between us." she nodded and wasn't sure if it was to convince Anju or herself as she looked over at her friend, waiting for her reaction.

If it was the former, it did not seem to be working, as Anju sat still for a long time before a tired smile crossed her lips. "I won't tell anyone about all of this," she motioned towards Zelda, "until the moment you say that I can."

"Good."

Zelda had hoped to shut down the conversation entirely with that, but Anju still sat in her bed, looking over at Zelda, almost like she was waiting for Zelda to add something more. When Zelda didn't, however, Anju jumped off her bed.

"I have to go pick up a book from the library," she said, "you'll be okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry."

Anju stood still, her hand resting on the door handle. Then, she accepted Zelda's assurance and left the room. The door closed behind her without a sound and Zelda immediately sprang into action.

Forcing herself to ignore the way it made her head hurt to stand up, she walked over to her desk and opened up her computer. She needed answers and although she doubted that she would be able to get any just then, it wouldn't hurt to try. So she clicked on the browser icon and began to write

How to know if you are in love with your best friend.

Zelda looked down at the cursor blinking at the end of her question, her stomach tightening with worry. Could anyone trace this? Was there even the tiniest risk of someone finding a way to figure out what she had searched for? She doubted it, but what if she was wrong, or what if she forgot to delete her search history, and someone came across it by accident?

Tapping on the backspace key, Zelda deleted the last part of her question.

How to know if you are in love.

That was what she wanted to know, wasn't it? Zelda looked at the screen, reading her words over and over, until she began to pay more attention to the tiny pixels, the small squares she could see everywhere than she did to the words. Was she really about to ask the internet for help, hoping that a total stranger could help her figure out her feelings? Asking Anju had been one thing, she knew Anju and Anju knew her, but searching for an answer on the internet… that made it look a lot more desperate.

Zelda forced the laptop shut with a sigh. She couldn't do it, just couldn't. But then who else could she ask?

Looking around the room, her gaze landed on her phone, lying on the bedside table. Of course. Why had she not already thought of that?

She picked it up, and a couple of seconds later, Zelda had called her mum. She only heard the first three beeps before Impa answered the call, the sound of Impa trying to shush Tetra reaching Zelda trough the phone as her mum turned her attention towards her.

"Zelda?" Impa asked. "How's everything going? Is the musical coming along well, how are you doing in class—"

Zelda interrupted her, not wanting to have to wait with her question any longer and risk backing out again. "Mum, how did you know that you were in love with dad?"

A surprised sound reached her from the other end of the phone. "What? Zelda what's going on?"

"Will you please just answer?" Zelda tried to mask her unease, but she knew that she wasn't doing a good enough job. Maybe that was also why Impa answered instead of asking for a reason.

"Uh, I don't know, I think it was something that happened gradually… though if I have to give you a more precise answer, I think I'll have to say that I woke up one day knowing that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him."

"But was there a moment where you knew that you were in love, a single moment that made you realise?" Zelda continued; fuelled by the momentum she had already gained.

There was a long pause, almost long enough to make Zelda worry that Impa had not heard her. She couldn't imagine finding the courage to ask her another time, but then Impa's voice came back again. "No, I don't think I can pinpoint any exact moment… what is going on, Zelda, have you met someone?"

Zelda glanced over towards her computer. It would be too much for her to attempt to explain everything that was going, so she settled for the simple version. "Maybe, I'm not really sure."

"Well, if it ends up becoming something, you'll have to invite him home with you during the festival. I would love to meet your first boyfriend and I think your father would as well!"

Her insides turned into ice as Zelda felt a strange numbness spread through her body.

Holding the phone so tightly that it was a miracle she did not break it, Zelda stared straight ahead. "I'll remember that. Goodbye."

"Wait, Zelda, what's wrong?" her mum's voice echoed from the phone and Zelda could hear the worry in her tone. "Zelda, just talk with me, if you are having problems with boys—"

She ended the call, placing her phone back down on the bedside table with more force than what was strictly necessary.

Nayru, why had she thought to call her family? Why had she thought that would be a way to figure out her feelings? Now, she had not only not had any luck in regards to figuring out what was going on, she could also feel the tears starting to fill her eyes, making the room blurry as Zelda furiously tried to blink them away. Everything was fine, her mum had just assumed she knew more than what she really did, there wasn't any ill intentions behind the question, statistically, Zelda talking about a boy was probably the most likely option as well.

But none of the explanations did much to help her make the cold sensation in the pit of her stomach go away. The walls of her room were a blurry mess even as Zelda tried her best to wipe the tears away, only for more to form.

Her necklace seemed impossibly heavy as Zelda reached out to grab the pendant, searching for some kind of way to help herself and try to make the emotions go away. As she clutched the little harp like her life depended on it, she could only state that the feelings did not disappear though her tears stopped trickling down her cheeks, instead settling for making her vision unclear.

It was all too much, too much for her to deal with on top of everything else.

Before long, Zelda gave up and went to bed.

She lay there for a long time, starring out into the darkness of her room and trying to ignore the way that her tears were dripping down onto the pillow. Everything was fine, or at least Zelda could pretend that it was until it truly became the case.