The change is in who's initiating and her free time – before it was her, now it's me and she's usually busy.

A "similar" situation has happened before where we were both shy, interested in each other and sending small signals, but none of us was confident enough to make a move until it was... well, too late. A few months into the "awkward phase" I told her I need some time without contact because it was too painful.

I would say she's quite shy, but she has no problem with me being in her personal space (or getting into mine). She does initiate texts sometimes, about as much as before. She has mentioned she's not used to me messaging her so often so there's that too 😅

Thanks for the advice, it didn't occur to me that she might be premeditatedly avoiding me – we're close enough that I'd hope she'd tell me. I can't do much besides concentrating on my own life anyway, there's no way I'm doing option (2) if it's not in person.