Secretly Married (English)

Chapter 03

Harley picked up the file case and was about to call to the girl, but she was already so far ahead.

Eh, I'll just give this to her together with the project, he thought as he walked toward his own classroom. He was able to partially repair the light dimmer as he was walking. It wasn't really that damaged, so he stopped by the door of his homeroom to inspect the contents of the file case.

The file case contains a passport with the name Phoebe Isabelle C. Bernal and a few photocopies of some passport pages. He flipped through this and found a very curious paper: The high court of New Hampshire is hereby issuing a special consideration for the marriage of Phoebe Isabelle C. Bernal and Ken Tomas R. Fuentabella . . .

The date stamp on the marriage certificate was a year ago. It seems like the girl has been married for a year but hasn't gotten around to changing her status on her passport.

Hold on, they're married? Ken Tomas—isn't that Kent's real name?

The odd scene earlier came to Harley's mind as he perused the document. He was aware of the artist's contracts from the other studio, so he knew why Kent had to pretend that he didn't know the girl. But what he couldn't understand was why they had to get married in the first place and at such young ages. More and more people were coming into the classroom, looking at him before entering. He stuffed the papers back into the file case and went in, working on repairing the light dimmer for a few more minutes before heading back out to the girl's classroom.

Phoebe and Jhone kept watch by the doorway for Ms. Cagula. Jhone still could not believe that Phoebe's project was with another celebrity, and this time, it's not her husband.

"I thought you had no idea who Harley is. How are you sure that it's him?" Jhone asked, still not believing the whole story.

"Some stupid girls were whispering—very loudly, might I add—how I was trying to get the attention of two celebrities in school."

"Two?"

"Yeah, Kent saw what happened. He was quite annoyed."

"He's jealous? OMG."

"Shut up! I don't think so. He's probably mad because he did the project for me last night, and now it's broken."

"OMG. That's even better! So sweet!" Jhone said, squeezing her friend's shoulder in frenzy.

"Ugh, shut up, will you? It's not like that."

"Oh my god, there's Ms. Cagula!" Jhone shrieked. Then her eyes widened even more. "And OMG! There's Harley. And he's heading here. OMG!" Jhone couldn't contain herself. She dug her fingernails into Phoebe's arm.

"Ouch!"

Ms. Cagula then came into the room, forcing the two friends to go to their seats.

"Oh my, what about your project, Phoebe?" Phoebe looked at the glass screen on the door. The teacher started doing a roll call. Phoebe's heart thumped as she waited for her last name—erm, her maiden name—to be called.

"Bernal?" the teacher looked up. Phoebe stood up slowly and was about to make some stupid excuse. Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Everyone looked at the door as it slowly opened, revealing Harley Villaluz.

The room started buzzing with whispers, and every girl was shuffling in her bag for her smart phone to take a photo of the celebrity.

"Yes, Mr. Villaluz? How may I help you?" their teacher—a terror teacher at that—said sweetly to Harley with a sickening smile on her face.

Jhone looked at Phoebe and acted like she was about to throw up. Phoebe rolled her eyes.

"Um, Mrs. . . ."

"It's Ms. Cagula!" the teacher interjected.

"Yes, Ms. Cagula. Sorry. I'm looking for Phoebe Isabelle Fuent—I mean, Bernal. I borrowed her light dimmer and wasn't able to return it immediately. Here it is," he said.

Phoebe couldn't believe it.

He was about to say her real last name—her married name.

~~

"Ms. Bernal, please go ahead and take your project from him."

Phoebe got up and took the project from him. Then he slipped another object to her quickly.

"You left this on the floor earlier."

"I can explain—" Phoebe started to say.

"Yeah. After class, want to meet up?"

Phoebe was taken aback but just nodded as he winked at her.

"Ms. Cagula, thanks. I'll go ahead." Ms. Cagula smiled widely and waved back.

When Harley closed the door behind him, Ms. Cagula lost her smile and asked for Phoebe's project. Phoebe had to refrain from rolling her eyes. Why is everyone so celebrity-crazy in this school? she thought as she sat back down.

At lunch, Phoebe told Jhone that Harley already knew about her secret because of the file case.

"Ugh! I've been reminding you to show up for your personal appearance there!" Jhone said. "You're still carrying that around?"

"Sorry, I keep forgetting!"

After the break, Phoebe kept looking at her watch. She needed to explain things to Harley in the hopes that he wouldn't reveal the truth. He could do that to his advantage because it could destroy the career of his biggest rival. But Phoebe had to take the chance. He seems nice, she thought.

The moment the school bell rang, Phoebe was up and out of the door, waving a hasty goodbye to her best friend. She tried to be discreet as she looked for Harley, but Kent already saw her as he was leaving their homeroom—how lucky indeed that Kent and Harley had homeroom together.

"What are you doing here?" Kent asked through gritted teeth.

Phoebe pointedly ignored him as she craned her neck to see Harley, who was now leaving the room. When he met her eyes, he pointed toward the exit.

"Go ahead," Harley mouthed.

Phoebe took one last look at Kent before she went ahead. A few more seconds later, she could hear someone's footsteps behind her. She sneaked a look and saw Harley trying to act casual. Hopefully, no one noticed. Unbeknownst to her, someone already did.

Kent watched as Harley followed Phoebe outside the building. He watched them for a few minutes, and his suspicions were confirmed—they were sneaking out together. He felt a surge of anger toward the two of them, especially at Phoebe, but he didn't know why.

Then his thoughts went to Harley. Mr. Nice Guy was stealing his wife, huh? But then again, Harley, just like the rest of the people outside his and Phoebe's family, didn't know about his relationship status with Phoebe. So why did he feel like Harley was trying to steal something—er, someone—from him?

Ah, forget it! Kent thought as he started his car. He considered following them, but when he exited the gate, they were nowhere to be found. Plus, he felt like it was a waste of time. After all, Phoebe was just his wife on paper, right? Right?

*later*