[Newt presses his lips into a line, exhales a tight breath through his nose.]

We--we just fight, Hermann. All the time. It's what we do. We've always... You're the one that made it weird! It wasn't that big of a deal!

[But it was. Newt had been similarly crushed when, after years of passionate back-and-forth, the real thing turned out to be so infuriating. And it escalated more quickly than he anticipated, and then they were yelling at each other, and it felt nothing like the letters. It just hurt.]

And you said it yourself: It would've been awkward. I didn't... I didn't let it go. I was trying to, I don't know, give you space, or whatever.

[Or he was too afraid that he really had broken things beyond repair, and then the appropriate window for "space" lapsed and turned into radio silence. He hesitates.]

I guess I just thought I'd hear from you again if, y'know, you still wanted to talk. It didn't need to be some grand thing. I wanted to just... pick up where we left off, I guess.

[A beat.]

But I'm not the one that let it go. Whatever happened there wasn't me letting it go.