Im in love with my best friend but im unsure if she feels the same

Whats up everyone. Im brand spanking new to this forum and i made this account because as from the title, im in quite a predicament and need advice. Im a young woman of 21. I have three best friends who are also female. One of which im secretly in love with...we all met in highschool and ive known them all for nearly five years. Its a very tight nit group. Im not exaggerating when i say im in love with her. Ive been around the block before and i know for a fact that ive never in my life felt so strongly romantically and sexually to anyone else this much.
A little backround. Me and this friend of mine are extremely close. All of us are pretty close but something about us alone is different but it could just be my own feelings clouding my judgement. We are very nerdy, dorky, and introverted people and have many many inside jokes and fandoms we injoy together. We always have a good time together. I need to point out however that 3 years ago in highschool, me and her dated. But it was nothing serious and we never accually had sexual contact. Another very important detail about her is she is a very touchy feely person with friends. The reason for our past relationship not taking off was for a couple reasons.
1: She'd never dated before and is also very shy about romantic or sexual interactions.
2: Id only dated a guy before this and was still a virgin myself and had no idea how to make a move and neither did she.
3: She stopped touching me, teasing me, wrestling with me, etc as soon as we agreed to date. I gathered that maybe realizing she could be sexual with me, she got very shy and nervous around me because she didnt know how to deal with possible feelings for me.
4: She sorta neglected the relationship, a kinda casual avoidance probably due to the fact that it was intimidating for her and she spent alot of her time hanging out with her cousin who was basically like a close sibling to her at the time.
5: I legit couldnt tell if she liked me in a romantic or sexual way. I even asked her a few times and she responded with confusion saying "im not sure" and stuff along those lines, meanwhile i had fallen head over heels and considered her the best person id ever met.
We did kiss pretty frequently, with her initiating some too. But we ended up meeting one night where i suggested ending the relationship and we ended it mutually and then she opened up to me about her life, telling me things about her id never knew before. After that, we went right back to being the close friends we were before if not closer. But i was still upset and didnt know how to make my feelings for her go away. I ended up with a guy 4 months later who deflowered me and i dated for over a year but who cheated on me. After a while i could see he had no respect for me whatsoever anyway. Good riddance, ugh.
Things i noticed while i was dating him however is my friend distanced herself from me while i dated him. She stopped being as interested in seeing me or partaking in our friendly play fights and games and teasing and instead just got closer to her cousin and other friends. I didnt know why this was. Then, after me and him broke it off, she magically started showing me more attention. Maybe she really had feelings and thus resented me dating someone else. Or maybe she wanted to keep her distance in respect of me dating someone, idk cause she has shown to be possessive of close friends.
Recently this year, me and her have grown extremely close. We ended up working together at a seasonal job which was a blast and allowed us some more growth in our friendship. A few things to mention. There have been a few people who thought we were dating because of the way we treat eachother, even in public. We tease eachother, have many personal inside jokes, mildly flirt and hold hands openly. These things however are also very common in simple platonic very close female friendships and thats where the line is blurred. I even asked in our other friend what she thought and sh agreed our relatioshipis quite strange for just being platonic. I should mention she identifies as pansexual (could like pretty much anyone)
Theres just many things ive noticed that make me wonder if she has feelings for me. She shows all signs of possible attraction but alot of those can also be a sign of close friendship and im so confused and clouded by my own feelings. She also says or sends to me very questionable things sometimes.
I fear telling her i feel this way because im worried itd have an effect on our friendship. Ive never stopped having feelings for her. I even developed them practically the day we met and even when i think im over it, it always creeps back up on me, espessially if i think she did something that could mean she too secretly feels that way. She recently told me shes demisexual as well now (basically she could be romantically or sexually interested in anyone of any gender but only if she has a strong bond with them first and doesnt check out just random people because she finds personality and bonds more important than the sexual part) She is also still a virgin and very reserved about real life relationship topics.
We have grown closer over the years and our friendship is so close, we are like on a sibling level of closeness. I dont think of her as a sibling cause thatd be wierd considering my feelings, just that we have a very powerful bond but at the same time i feel i get clues or subtle hints shes got feelings for me. I dont know what to do over here, silently suffering because im dreaming of a romantic relationship with her and i dont even know how to bring this conversation up to her. Do i tell her my feelings first? Do i ask if she has feelings for me first? Do i ask if she feels our friendship is more than just friendly? She might get awkward and nervous again or lie and i dont want to lose the growing bond we have developed. Ive gone back and forth, even taken time away from her to try and clear my head or make these feelings go away. I try to dress more flattering to my body and stuff to get her attention. Ive noticed she started to do this too when before we'd rock sweatpants and lounge clothing together. I feel like if she could just reject me, we could move on to a normal friendship and id never have to question what if anymore but of course the more ideal scenario is to be with her romantically. Itd be different this time for sure too if we did date again. Idk i just want the obsessing to end. I dont know what to do. UUUUGH. HELP. ;_;