He asked for a break, but writes me every day

[Thundanton]

let's get the facts straight here first. you said he asked for a 'break', and not 'I want to break up with you' so that distinction definitely means something, for what it means, I'm not sure, depends on his personality.

I would say he could have did it for either three reasons:

1. he is too shy and afraid of hurting your feelings to say he wants to break up.
you should know if this is true or not, is he a shy person in general? when he said it to you, did he have emotions in his words or not?

2. he is a very mean person that doesn't care about your feelings and wants to keep you hanging while he goes out and has his freedom.
this is very unlikely and rare that this would be the case. but if it is, I'm sure you would know deep down what kind of person he is since you have been living with him.

3. he is not sure what he wants so he doesn't want to just write you off there and then
This sounds like the most likely of scenarios. which means, if this is the case, only time will tell how he will come out of this phase. But honestly, judging from the info you have been giving me, I would say he won't be ready anytime soon. Relationships can in some ways feel very restrictive because you not only have to think of yourself and your own values wants and needs (which in my opinion is very difficult in the first place) but also for your partner as well. he knows this and understands it very deeply and it seems to be putting a toll on him. So he is trying to get his mind of the the relationship completely, that's probably why he doesn't sound romantic at all. you have tried to pull him back into the game as you have said, but it didn't work, and he's obviously not stupid, so he is just choosing to ignore his feeling for you in that case.

Before you even decide which of the three reasons it may be though, I should ask you to contemplate on what the word 'break' even means to you, and to him, because that word is soo ambiguous that you too cannot have the same mutual meaning. you should have clarified that because now he could think it means -split up temporarily from you until I say so- which would mean he is allowed to go and sleep around or it could mean -I just need some time alone-. I have heard many stories about people cheating on breaks then coming back thinking they did nothing wrong so I must say this needs to be considered.