Romance is a side-element of Grow: Song of the Evertree. Through special romance plotlines, the Apprentice can get to know and become very close with five different Residents, learning more about them (and in some cases, about their cultures). Only one Resident can be taken to the final conclusion of the romance plotline during each playthrough; the other four can instead become "good friends" and share a special friendship cutscene rather than a cutscene culminating their romance.
Each plotline begins with the Apprentice meeting the Resident after completing the necessary pre-requisites for them to come to Alaria. Each encounter with that Resident gives the Apprentice opportunities to further their relationship by selecting positive, affirming options — or they can be cold and stand-offish, keeping their friendship cool.
Although there are five eligible characters for romance, only one can be taken to the conclusion of their romance plotline (the other four will have one final friendship-confession cutscene after another NPC is chosen as the one to romance). These five characters are also special characters who cannot have their clothing or appearance modified by the Apprentice giving them gifts. When inspecting these characters, instead of seeing stars for their happiness level, there are pink hearts(
), representing how happy they are with the Apprentice. As the romance plotlines progress, the hearts get filled in. Once a romance character has been taken all the way to five hearts (which will turn red as well), they are considered "in a relationship" with the Apprentice, and romance is no longer possible with the other four.
Note that the final dialogue option to push the Apprentice's romance choice to "love" instead of "like" is marked in the User Interface with a double heart icon (
). Once a double-heart icon in dialogue with a romance character is selected, this will disable the romance questlines for the other four. However, the Apprentice can still talk to the other four and initiate their romance dialogues — the difference is that, while this might appear to progress the romance, it doesn't complete any quests, and a few game-days later, the non-romanced characters will have friendship-confession cutscenes with the Apprentice.
The chosen romantic interest's confesssion of their romantic interest in the Apprentice in a special cutscene is the culmination of the on-screen romance; there is no physical contact depicted in-game, and no further overtures will be made by whichever character (if any) for whom the Apprentice chose the dialogue option marked by the double-heart icon. Warmer greetings when the Apprentice engages them in dialogue after the romantic-confession cutscene are the extent of the romantic interest's expression of that interest.
The following characters are eligible for romance: