3: Books Don't Give Experience

“Little lady!”

“Alek!”

Alek Cider looked at them confusedly. 

Their blood suddenly boiled with excitement. She scrutinized them from head to toe. 

Quinn awkwardly covered his bottoms with a book. He felt like the little lady was taking off his clothes from his eyes. He still couldn’t get used to it. 

The little lady told him that he couldn’t clearly see his whole humanity. “It was vague.” That's what she said, but still! Vague revealed that she still could see him in and out!

Quinn peeked at Toro who was daringly exposing his body to the little lady. He frowned and smacked his peanuts with a book.

“I think you should change the cover later, Old Man Quinn.” Alek Cider frowned as she glanced at the book sent directly to Toro’s crotch. “I don’t want to hold the dry semen sticking on it.”

She then looked at Quinn whose eyes widened in shock. “Learn the difference between man and woman!” His cheeks reddened. He wasn’t used to the little lady’s savage mouth. 

Toro, on the other hand, scratched his head. “If you are concerned about the private genital parts of the human body, then should the animals be ashamed, too? It’s only organs, we have nothing to worry about.”

Alek Cider nodded in agreement. Her lips pouted as she tried to internalize what her older brother Toro lectured. 

“I don’t understand why you are overreacting, Quinn?”

“Right.” Alek Cider nodded and continued, “I know you are also smart, Old Man Quinn. However, I couldn’t deny the fact that Brother Toro was studying Medical Science in our school. His words and even his body reacted to the natural call of science.”

Quinn felt his intelligence was tested. 

He wrote almost all reference books in this world, yet these two teenagers in front of him used what he wrote to slap him. He simply shot himself on the foot. 

Where did the logic of these two, unrelated by blood brother and sister, go for vacation?

Feeling the turmoil in his emotions, Alek Cider smiled faintly and hooked her hand on Quinn’s arm. 

“Old Man Quinn, why are you looking for me?”

Quinn snapped from his daze. She looked at Alek Cider’s hand hanging on him and looked at her face. “I have no money!”

“Ei.” Alek Cider grunted. “You are not guessing the right thing at all.”

“Let’s get inside first. “ Toro opened the gate widely to let them enter. He wasn’t jealous of Alek acting coy in front of Quinn.

It was his first time seeing her so happy. Him and their other friends were relieved that she could act normally now. 

She never hugged them not because she didn’t want to. They knew her senses were extreme. 

Alek Cider hated to feel their body. But she had longed to get intimate with people. 

“I give you these limited editions of mechanical and electronics books. You seem to fall in love fiddling with machine junks.” Quinn observed any changes of her reaction, waiting for her to beam a smile. 

They were sitting in the spacious and seemingly empty living room. There was a rectangular refectory table in the middle of a semicircular couch. The two of them sat on both ends of the couch.

In contrast to his expectations, Alek Cider frowned. “Why do I need that for?”

“To learn and gain experience. You will be able to have references on the things you crafted.”

“Books don’t give experience.” 

Toro came back with water on his hand. That’s the only thing they got for now. They haven’t gone to the grocery store yet. 

Quinn accepted the water and drank a little. “What don’t give experience? These books are written by the most prominent Scholar Sohal!” Quinn was enraged. He just found a person who could make use of these books, yet the person immediately looked down upon it. 

Before Alek Cider could speak and express what she observed, Toro raised his hand. “Quinn, Alek could not comprehend anything from the book. She would most likely stare at it for who knows how many days but still couldn’t learn anything from it.”

Alek Cider glared at Toro. She pursed her lips as she grabbed a small book from under the refectory table. “I finished this in an hour!” She proudly exclaimed. Her tranquil eyes finally showed a different set of emotion-- embarrassment. 

Toro cast a suspicious gaze at her. Alek Cider was holding the student’s handbook from Erius University. “Don’t open the book. What did you learn from there?”

“The paper was of higher quality than what we used. The person who bind it was meticulous-”

“You just expose yourself,” Toro sighed. Meanwhile, Quinn chuckled. 

Quinn initially had no idea about her. After all, it’s only their fourth meet up. 

First was when she saved him from the bullies of Erius University. Second was when he returned her handkerchief back and offered her many benefits. Third was when she finally completed her prototype model of a smartphone. He helped her put it into an auction that would be happening in a few days. And lastly, this time. 

“I’ll try reading it. I have great interest in machines anyway.” Alek Cider apologetically smiled. “Maybe because of my interest, I would be able to learn it.”

“Does it have a photo?” Toro glanced at Quinn. It’s much better to have a visual presentation than text only. 

Toro was also confused before. Alek Cider could teach all ten of them, yet she didn’t know where she got her knowledge. 

There’s too many mysteries enshrouding her personality. 

“Sure. I’ll see you at the banquet four days from now.” Quinn stood up and reminded again, “Boy, change the cover for the little lady.”

“Hey… What banquet are you saying? Aren’t we going to the Auction Hall on that day?”

Quinn licked his lips seductively as he watched the edge of the ceiling from where he was facing. “Did no one inform you?”

“About?”

“The adopted niece of a General from the Mainland will be having her birthday and celebration for getting into the Top 10 City rankings in the recent SAT.” He didn’t mention that he knew the General. But he had no idea who the hell his adopted niece was. 

“Do they really need to celebrate for being in the top 10?” Alek Cider laughed innocently as she blurted out what’s on her mind. “Big Brother Toro was even second in the ranking!” 

Toro raised his hand to shut Alek Cider from revealing his rank in the recent SAT. However, he was too late, so he could only brush his face in embarrassment.

Quinn boldly sat back from where he sat earlier. He crossed his long legs and elegantly leaned on the backrest of the couch. His face showed interest and expectation. 

The little lady may be a talented fool, but she unexpectedly has a genius beside her. “Then the top 1 in the city rankings may be the little lady, right?” Quinn asked full of expectations. 

Toro and Alek Cider glanced at each other. They grinned foolishly at each other. 

Quinn was confused. He alternately looked at the two of them, hoping to know what’s going on in their minds.

“I told you, Alek could not remember anything from the books.” Toro helplessly commented. His eyes still lingered on Alek Cider who was nonchalant about it. 

“Then?”  

“She barely passed.” 

Quinn’s eyes remained suspicious. Are they taking advantage of him because he was still unaware of their names?

“You two, what’s your name?”

“You didn’t know?” Both Alek Cider and Toro synchronously asked, dumbfounded of his oblivion. 

They have been talking with Quinn intimately like friends. They thought he already knew their names, albeit meeting for only a few times. 

They hesitated. Did they forget that they were only strangers who called each other by the name they came up with? 

“Let’s do it this way. I’ll introduce myself first. It’s too late for us to cast each other’s suspicions. We are already working together now.”

“...”

“Deal?”

“No deal!” Alek Cider and Toro crossed their arms on air. They looked like twins who knew what the other was thinking. 

“Guess, it’s a deal.” Quinn pretended not to hear them. “Anyway, do you know the writer of those books I’m lending you?”

“You said Scholar Sohal.”

“No.” 

Alek and Toro answered in chorus. Toro remembered what he said, but Alek wasn’t. 

“How do you describe Sohal in your mind?” Quinn expectantly asked. His voice sounded a little arrogant and proud. 

“Old man in his 80s or 90s, maybe?” Toro answered thoughtfully. “I thought we’re introducing each other?”

“Guess he's dead.” Alek Cider also guessed. 

She was trying to feel the flow of Quinn’s blood. Suddenly, she could sense it clearly now. There were surely sudden changes in his emotions and it’s strong, quite similar to anger. 

Quinn stood up, pointing at Alek Cider. His chest heaved up and down as if his heart would burst out of his chest. 

Toro was confused. Meanwhile, Alek Cider was looking at him spectacularly. Should she keep angering him?

“I’m the Great Scholar Quinn Sohal!”