time lag

reply, response

to reply, to respond

straight, not bent

直ぐ: immediately, right away, soon / 直ぐ: quick to / 直ぐ: right next to, right close by

(obsolete) 過ぐ: classical form of modern 過ぎる (sugiru, “to go through, to go past; to exceed”)

(obsolete) 挿ぐ: classical form of modern 挿げる (sugeru, “to connect or affix one thing to another, especially by passing something through something else”)

直ぐに: immediately

he / distal demonstrative, something far off removed from both speaker and listener: that / boyfriend

distal demonstrative, something far off removed from both speaker and listener: that, yon / particularly, male personal third person pronoun: he / by extension from he: boyfriend