Depend on soft-hearted response (5)

I believe the answer is:

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'hearted response' is the definition.
'reply' can be an answer for 'response' (synonyms). I'm unsure of the 'hearted' bit.

'depend on soft' is the wordplay.
'depend' becomes 'rely' (to depend on someone is to rely on them).
'on' is an insertion indicator (as in clothing 'on' a person).
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for piano, 'soft').
'rely' enclosing 'p' is 'REPLY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for reply that I've seen before include "Answer, respond" , "Comeback" , "Return" , "Returned statement" , "acknowledgement" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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