As the days passed by, Helena and Catherine went on their own ways and they only see each other in marketing and economics class, both were handled by Doctor Andrino. Helena usually hang out with her classmates in accounting and Catherine had no choice but to hang out with Miko. Her friendship Miko has gotten stronger everyday and they usually have their afternoon snacks together.

Few months later, Helena joined them again, as well as George and Johnny. Unfortunately, Miko couldn’t hang out with them anymore because of his job, so it was just the four them and their classmates assumed that she was George’s girlfriend while Johnny was dating Helena too. The rumors were absurd and they just ignored it!

Her first semester in the university was fun and exciting, however, she struggled to maintain her grades and Catherine worried that she might be dropped from the scholarship and she couldn’t let it happen. She was only relieved when her grades was available at the MIS office and she got a copy. A deep sigh escaped from her lips as she read the report. Excitedly, she went home and found her Aunt Sabina not in the mood. Sanjie’s mother was cranky when she arrived and she didn’t know what’s wrong. “Hello, Auntie.” She greeted her but Sanjie’s mother just ignore her and didn’t reply.

Catherine went upstairs to change her clothes but before she could finish with her outfit, she heard Aunt Sabina’s voice downstairs. The woman complained about the boarders in her house who doesn’t even know how to clean the houses or the dishes. She didn’t go down and just listened to her aunt but Catherine was hurt by her aunt’s harsh words even if it was not said to her face. How could Aunt Sabina accused her of not helping in the house when every Sunday, she would do the laundry all day. It could be true that she couldn’t help in the household chores everyday but still, she helped whenever she’s free.

That night, she needed someone to talk to, but there was no one available. Every day, she felt uncomfortable in her uncle’s place and decided to leave, but where would she get the money for board and lodging?

For two years, Catherine managed to remain in her uncle’s house despite the cold treatment she got from her aunt. She had no choice as nobody could help her! Because of the uncomfortable situation at home, Catherine preferred to spend most of her time the school’s library. Every time, she’s alone, she could remember Miko, but he was no longer studying in the university. She didn’t ask about his reason for quitting but it must be also hard for him.

“Medina, I noticed that you’re always alone. Don’t you have friends to hang out?”

Catherine looked up to Jenelyn Ursal, her classmate in almost all subjects. “Hi Ursal, I thought you don’t know where’s the library is.” She jested. Jenelyn Ursal was usually slow in their class but she got good friends like the smartest in their class. She had help and that’s how she survived in the university without a failing grade.

Jenelyn laughed at Catherine’s joke before she sat down. “You looked poor and alone,” she said.

Catherine was not ashamed of being poor because it was true. Her weekly allowance was only a hundred pesos and after the transportation cost, there was barely enough for her food. “I am poor,” she replied.

“Me too,” Jenelyn said.

Catherine was shocked to hear the woman said that she was poor because she didn’t look like one. Her clothes were branded and everything in her looked expensive. “You’re lying,” she didn’t believe Jenelyn to be poor.

“I came from a poor family. It’s just that I found a sponsor online and he usually send me some money every month,” she admitted. There was no one in their class who knew about her dark secret, but with Catherine Medina, she felt the connection and she knew that she could tell her about it.

“I don’t understand, Ursal.” Catherine said but she was interested to know how she managed to find a sponsor. It could be her need of money or anything else, but she was eager to find out out more from her classmate.

“Follow me,” Jenelyn sais as she couldn’t talk freely inside the library.

Catherine followed Jenelyn outside the building and they continued to walk until they reached Orange Brutus. “I have no money for this,” she warned Jenelyn that it was a wrong idea to bring her to such restaurant.

“It’s my treat, common.” Jenelyn choose the table at the corner of the restaurant before she went to the counter to order something to eat. “Two orders of grilled cheese and hot choco please,” she placed her orders and took out a one hundred peso bill from her wallet. Each meal would only cost around forty pesos or eighty for two persons. “Enjoy,” she said as she brought the snacks over to their table.

“Thank you, Ursal.” Catherine was grateful for the free snacks and it would save her some coins for her meals.

“No problem. You look interested when I mentioned about my sponsor,” she was a good judge in character and Medina looked desperate enough to earn some cash, and she had the means to help her.

“Am I very obvious?” Suddenly, Catherine felt uncomfortable that Ursal could read her mind and facial expressions.

“Maybe it’s because I was like you before, desperate for money.” She answered. It wasn’t easy to be in the city without financial assistance from the parents and Jenelyn even experienced being hungry for two days, and that was her eye opener! She didn’t want to be poor anymore! As a student, her monthly allowance of five hundred dollars from her american sponsor was more than enough to afford the luxury she needed.

“I’m not comfortable to get naked in front of a man, Ursal.” She stated. It could be true that she was desperate for money but she could never use her body like that.

“Silly. Who told you to be naked? We don’t have to use our body now, but our brain.” Jenelyn tapped her head with her finger and Catherine smiled. “Do you believe I’ve got no brains because I was slow in class?”

“Yes,” Catherine answered, and it was Jenelyn’s turn to laugh.

“I like your sense of humor and I’m sure that it won’t be hard for you to find a sponsor.” There were a lot of Americans in their late forties or even late fifties who looked for a young prospect to be their girlfriend.

“Can you teach me?” She asked.

***

Before the day ended, Jenelyn helped her to sign up in one of the websites. As soon as her profile was up, her classmate loaned her a thousand pesos so she would have money to rent a computer in the internet café. Even if she hasn’t received a single dime yet, Catherine was grateful for Jenelyn’s help. Jenelyn’s source of income would be considered questionable but who was she to question it? She needed money and had to act on it or die from starvation!

The university had two internet café’s in the Admin building and students were allowed to use for free for a limited time online such as thirty minutes a day. For Catherine it was more than enough to check on her yahoo mail and messenger. She thought it was easy but it was far from that. It had been a month since she started chatting with random people online and not one of them showed the sign of willingness to support her. Frustrations started to build up in her but Jenelyn encouraged her to be patient and the right man would just come along.

She refused any suitors because she wanted to focus on her goal! Back then, there’s no facebook yet, and it was only Friendster that helped to connect people. Catherine had various forms of online messenger like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo and Friendster. One day, she received a message from someone named Sanver. The man seemed nice but he was not an American but a Filipino, nevertheless, she entertained his messages and they communicated via Friendster or MIRC, the leading chatroom that time. Sooner, Catherine lost her focus on finding an american sponsor and spent most of her free time with Sanver until they became very close online and decided to meet in person.

As she had no phone, she didn’t feel like going to their agreed meeting place and there were a lot of what ifs an hour before their scheduled meeting. Online, she and Sanver had a connection but Catherine worried that it would be different in person. After her last subject in the afternoon, she went outside the university and waited for a jeepney that would pass by the Raintree Mall. She has never been in that place but she was positive that she would find their meeting place without any difficulty. The sketch and direction Sanver has provided to her was easy to follow and she was not dumb.

Fifteen minutes before five in the afternoon, she was already sitting in the bench situated in the lobby of the less crowded mall. She had already told him that she would be wearing her yellow tshirt from the scholar’s club she joined in. One of her feet tapped on the floor impatiently as she waited for the man to show up. Catherine was glad that there was a clock near their meeting place and it kept her updated of the time. The man was late but she was willing to wait for another ten minutes and made a mental note to go home at five thirty.

She expressed a deep sigh when it was almost five thirty and still there was no sign of him showing up. Catherine was ready to leave when a man sat beside her. “Hello Kate,” he said, so she looked up to him and her heart thumped like drum when she recognized the person sitting beside her. “Sanver?” She always had a thing for chinito or men with eyes like those of the Chinese.

“I’m sorry for being late, I was stucked in the traffic, but anyway, I’m glad that you waited and because of that, I’m going to treat you with something delicious tonight.” Sanver said and he didn’t stop to smile while staring at the young lady. If she was telling the truth, she was only eighteen and a second year in college and that would make him ten years older than her because he was already twenty-eight.

The way he talked, it seemed like they have known each other for a very long time, and she was comfortable with him. “That’s what I though when you didn’t show up at five, but you told me that your office was just around here,” she reminded him for their previous conversation.

“That’s right, but I had to visit the site in Mandaue today.” He replied with the truth and Sanver considered the woman as her equal despite their age gap.

He was an engineer and she admired his accomplishments in life. At twenty-eight, he had a stable career being a project engineer and Catherine considered it as sign that Sanver was doing good in his life, and she wouldn’t mind having him around. “I see,” she answered.

“Do you like Chinese food?” He asked her but Sanver hoped that she would like it too because he was craving for a chinese food.

“I’m not sure, but I’m willing to try.” How would she know about Chinese food when she only had a serving of steamed fried rice from Dimsum when Miko treated her for lunch and that was like a year ago.

“Good. Common, let’s go.” He said and grabbed her hand to hold it as they walked towards the Chinese restaurant inside Rustans in Mango Square.

She was taken aback by his boldness she didn’t react when Sanver held her hands while they walked. It was like she was dating her boyfriend, and to be honest, she liked the feeling of having someone to hold her hand. They walked for about three minutes before they reached the restaurant and it was Sanver who ordered their food.

After he settled their bill, the waitress gave the change and receipt to Catherine and Sanver smiled. “She must have assumed that you’re my wife,” he said.

She was speechless as she accepted the receipt and the money from the waitress. Her heart almost skipped a beat when he told her that the waitress assumed that she was his wife. “Or maybe she assumed that I’m your assistant,” she countered and Sanver laughed out loud.

“I like your sense of humor, Kate. Even now, I can tell that this is not going to be our first and last meeting, what do you think?” He asked. Aside from her demurred beauty, he was interested to know her more.

“I’m not sure. You already know that I’m always busy with my studies,” she replied.

“How about tomorrow night? What time do you finish with your last subject?” Sanver was excited as he waited for her to answer.

“Six o’clock,” she answered.

“Perfect. I’ll see you at six tomorrow,” he said.

“Did I say yes already?” But of course, she would agree to their second meeting especially when Sanver was very eager to see her again. She felt like a princess from a fairytale story when a prince suddenly showed up to swept off her feet. Every minute she spent with him was never boring and she started to like him a little bit.

“Not yet, but I hope you will.” Sanver pressured Catherine to agree and he would be disappointed if she would never meet with him again.

“All right, wait for me at the back gate tomorrow.” Finally, she agreed and as she said those words, her heart palpitated so much that she started to worry.

“Thank you,” he said and checked the time on his wristwatch. “It’s still early to go home, want to go for a ride?” he asked.

Catherine assumed that the man must have a motorcycle or he wouldn’t invite her for a ride if they’re just going to take a cab or a jeepney. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea,” she replied, but deep inside, she was excited.

“Common, Kate. I’m not a bad guy if you’re worried about your safety,” he understood if she would hesitate but he would really love to take her somewhere nice and airy.

“Okay, but I need to be home before ten.” She told him while devising a lie that she could tell her uncle if ever he would ask why she was late.

“Sure, no problem.” Just like earlier, he held the young woman’s hand while they walked towards the parking lot of Century Plaza. “Our office is in this building, but it’s already closed by now.” He informed her and pointed a closed office in the second floor of the building.

“What are we doing here?” Catherine started to panic as they continued to walk towards a dark alley.

“Are you scared?” He asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

“You should be.”