Chapter 67: Sincerity

''What's the matter?"  Lee Bareun asked innocently. "Did I scare you?"

"Only enough to put me in cardiac arrest."

"Sorry." The grin on his face said he wasn't. "I saw you sitting there in a daze, and I figured you could use something to wake you up."

"Oh, thanks. Thanks a bunch."

His grin faded. "You really are mad, huh?"

"Oh, I....I guess not."

She was, though. Scaring her that way had been such a stupid, thoughtless, childish thing to do. And it wasn't the first time either. Lee Bareun was always tricking her, springing practical jokes, messing with her head. Playing games. God, did she ever hate that. But she'd never told him off, just as she could never bring herself to ask Cha Sooyeon to turn down the volume on her stereo.

"Am I forgiven?"  Lee Bareun asked in a tone of voice a shade too sincere to be believed.