How to respond to you've been on my mind

The softening words are the important part of this message. "Lol" and "random I know" are her way of admitting she is a little exposed, and she is watching to see whether you make it awkward. A good sign is that she sent it at all. She picked a moment when you were probably talking, so she is not making a big deal of it. She just wanted you to know.

That means you do not need to match the intensity of the sentence. The message is a small, warm signal, not a declaration. If you treat it as a huge statement and answer with equal weight, you can push her back. If you treat it as a passing thought and answer with nothing, she may wonder whether it landed. The right read sits in the middle: pleased, a little flattered, relaxed about it.

One kind of reply mirrors her lightness and gives a small piece of you back. It is short, a bit playful, and says the message made you smile. The job is to receive the warmth without making it heavy. A draft is in this range if it is one or two lines and does not ask her anything that needs a serious answer. Skip any joke that makes her the target of the teasing.

A second kind of reply returns the thought. You say you have had her in mind too, or that the day went better for thinking about the conversation. The job here is reciprocity. It works when you actually feel it and fails when it is copied to be polite. Don't claim anything you wouldn't repeat in person. A third kind asks a light question that shows you were paying attention to something specific she has told you, so the conversation has somewhere to go. The job is to keep the thread alive without pushing for a plan. Avoid any question that is really a test of how she feels about you.

Send your reply at a normal time. Don't answer instantly if you are the type who replies in seconds, since that can look eager. Don't wait so long that it looks like you were deciding how to respond. A reply within an hour or so, or the same evening if her message came late, usually feels natural. If you have been chatting all day, a reply after a few minutes is fine.

If she answers warmly, you can keep going for a while. This is a good time to suggest meeting if you have been talking for a bit. If she does not reply for a day or two, don't send a second message about the first one. Wait a few days, then start a fresh topic that is clearly about something else, like a plan, a link, or a question about her week. If there is still nothing, let it go. One message saying she was thinking of you is not a request for a response, and chasing it turns a nice moment into pressure.