diff --git a/src/connection.cpp b/src/connection.cpp
index 8f5d0fe..1e2915e 100644
--- a/src/connection.cpp
+++ b/src/connection.cpp
@@ -132,10 +132,8 @@ void Connection::send_response(void *protocol_context,
   pending_response_queue_.emplace_back(
       PendingResponse{protocol_context, response_json, std::move(arena)});
 
-  // Mark that we have pending responses and trigger epoll interest
-  if (!has_pending_responses_) {
-    has_pending_responses_ = true;
-
+  // Trigger epoll interest if this is the first pending response
+  if (pending_response_queue_.size() == 1) {
     auto server = server_.lock();
     if (fd_ >= 0 && server) {
       // Add EPOLLOUT interest to trigger on_preprocess_writes
diff --git a/src/connection.hpp b/src/connection.hpp
index d288f62..3fb9308 100644
--- a/src/connection.hpp
+++ b/src/connection.hpp
@@ -342,8 +342,6 @@ private:
                       // mutex_, but if non-empty mutex_ can be
                       // dropped while server accesses existing elements.
   int64_t outgoing_bytes_queued_{0}; // Counter of queued bytes
-  bool has_pending_responses_{
-      false}; // True if protocol handler has responses to process
   std::deque<PendingResponse>
       pending_response_queue_; // Responses awaiting protocol processing
   // Set to a negative number in `close`
diff --git a/src/server.cpp b/src/server.cpp
index 3b37658..f3c1f36 100644
--- a/src/server.cpp
+++ b/src/server.cpp
@@ -438,14 +438,13 @@ void Server::process_connection_writes(Ref<Connection> &conn, int events) {
   // Process pending responses first if this is an EPOLLOUT event
   if (events & EPOLLOUT) {
     std::unique_lock lock(conn->mutex_);
-    if (conn->has_pending_responses_) {
+    if (!conn->pending_response_queue_.empty()) {
       std::vector<PendingResponse> pending_vec;
       pending_vec.reserve(conn->pending_response_queue_.size());
       for (auto &response : conn->pending_response_queue_) {
         pending_vec.push_back(std::move(response));
       }
       conn->pending_response_queue_.clear();
-      conn->has_pending_responses_ = false;
       lock.unlock();
 
       handler_.on_preprocess_writes(*conn, std::span{pending_vec});