Julia: Hello Maulik, I was busy yesterday. Sorry, I could not contact you.
Me: That is fine.
Julia: Yeah...I was pissed off; my boss flooded my inbox with loads of work.
Me: lol/hahaha/haha I hope you are okay now!
In that particular dialog, I wouldn't use "lol" or "hahaha"; I think the exclaimation point handles it just fine:
Julia: Yeah...I was pissed off; my boss flooded my inbox with loads of work.
Response: I hope you are okay now!
Since you're not laughing about this, I would avoid anything like lol, haha, hahaha, or bwah-ha-ha. If you don't want to let the exclamation convey your surprised sympathy on its own, there are better alternative exclamations:
Julia: My boss flooded my inbox with loads of work.
Response: Oh, no! I hope you are okay now.
or:
Julia: My boss flooded my inbox with loads of work.
Response: Yikes! I hope you are okay now.
or:
Julia: My boss flooded my inbox with loads of work.
Response: Ouch! I hope you are okay now.
The word ouch might be considered a bit informal there, but Wiktionary supports such usage:
ouch (interj.) 1 An expression of one's own physical pain. 2 An expression in sympathy at another's pain.
I don't think the problem here is that lol or hahaha are considered "offensive" – but they are inappropriate. I'm assuming you're not laughing at someone else's pain, but you are trying to show sympathy in a lighthearted way. Here's my advice: avoid using laughter to do this; save lol for things that both people would find funny or amusing.
This is how NOAD defines yikes:
yikes (exclamation) informal expressing shock and alarm, often for humorous effect : I had a dip in the 40-degree pool (yikes!).
I think that's closer to the emotion you are trying to convey.
"However" is a rather versatile word, and its placement in a sentence can have a difference in meaning.
However, a sentence can change in meaning depending on word placement.
This "however" is similar to a "despite this/that" and should always be followed by a comma.
A sentence can change in meaning depending on word placement, however.
This is a variation on the first structure. The "however" could be replaced with a "though". It should always be preceded by a comma.
- It can go in the middle (or elsewhere):
A sentence, however, can change in meaning depending on word placement.
Again, this is similar to the first construction. It can be more emphatic. Like the second, it is used similarly to a "though". It should be preceded and succeeded by a comma.
- It can go in the middle (or elsewhere) with a different intention:
Sentences convey meaning; however, this meaning can change depending on word placement.
This "however" is used like a "but" and the general practice is to precede it with a semicolon and end it with a comma.
So you can be quite flexible with the use of "however"; however, (see what I did there?) it is not a bad idea to limit how often you use it to avoid repetition.
Best Answer
“Soon” has no specific timeframe, just like “short” has no specific length. At most, you might guess what it means from context, but often you can’t.
For instance, if a mechanic says he’ll repair your car “soon”, he might mean today, or he might mean next week. Either meaning could be “soon” to him depending on how long the repair will take and how many other cars he has to work on.
If the customer wants a deadline, they will respond “How soon?” Or if they have a deadline in mind, they might ask “Will it be done by Friday?”