I still feel like it was a shitty way to end things and a shitty way to reply to her confession.
Dude's being a emotional cripple who's basically a wall is fine, if you at least imply that he actually loves her. Like, literally.
At this point we are just left guessing, and as the death of the author teaches us, if it's not in the work, it's not real.
Thinking about it, I wonder if it's the classic the author suddenly snapped and burned out and he just hates the work now and wants to just get it over with. I mean it takes reading the comments longer than reading the fucking chapter, lmfao.