Backstory:

Me and Ex escalated in friend's party, only touch and everybody knows. This is my second post about Ex so I know I fucked up hard. The first post told me I need to hard ghost her and yes I did, no contact whatsoever and yes I got mentioned the rule of tomassi and promised to never do it again.

But my ex msg me today: U just gonna ignore what happened that day?

How should I reply?

My friends are pretty much her friends, everyone knew each other from childhood so I cannot act like I didnt see that message.

How the fuck do I reply to not leave a bad impression to my social circle (me and ex basically have the same) and I know for sure 80% she's gonna share the chatlog with her friend (which is a friend of mine and her friend's bf is a very close friend of mine).

I am living in a conservative place where concept of fling and ons is practically non-existent. If they think we escalated, they just assumed we are back together, which means I am at fault if I am not back with her (cuz ya know I touched her body). What the fuck should I do?

We are average age of 20-21 here.

Holy fuck, it's just been 2 days and rule #7 came and bit me so fucking hard.