Cornelius didn't know exactly what he had expected her to say. He couldn't deny that he felt better knowing that she was at least fine, at least she didn't have anything horrible going on in her life since they had last spoken. And he was glad to hear that; he wanted her to be alright. But for whatever reason, he hadn't really expected her to tell him that she missed him. He remained in a slightly surprised quiet as Aspen informed him that she had 'missed him again', recalling that he was mad at her but that she figured that she deserved it or something. He didn't really like looking back on their last conversation together in the Great Hall, he didn't like losing his temper even slightly. Cornelius very rarely got upset, but whenever he did, he always felt slightly uncomfortable about it.

"Yeah, I was pretty mad at you," he agreed softly. There was no getting around the betrayal he felt throughout the following couple of weeks without her, the anger he felt in general about the entire situation. But eventually, the anger had dwindled substantially and instead slowly began to reveal the empty void she had left in his life.

He hadn't expected to tell her about that void though. He didn't plan to bring it up to the girl, but her own statements threw him off, and very suddenly he wanted her to know about the void. "I missed you a lot," he admitted to her quietly, brows furrowing as he recalled the last month or so without any communication. "I kept wishing that I could stay angry with you, so I wouldn't miss you so much." His voice dwindled to barely above a whisper, so close to her that little volume was really required. "But I kept thinking about you."