Viktor's expression became thoughtful, "A girlfriend? Umm, no...I didn't become friends with any girl back in my place. No girl talks to me. But now I have Saya as my girlfriend," Viktor said with a wide smile.
Tiana had a baffled look and then covered her mouth as she giggled, feeling amused, "Haha...I can't believe this."
"What?" Viktor asked with a confused expression as he tilted his head.
Tiana finally took a deep breath and explained to him all he needed to know about how people use these terms usually.
She then saw Dorian's cheeks becoming red as he bashfully said, "Oh...I see. Then I don't have a girlfriend at all."
Tiana chuckled and said, "Well, I think if you really tried, it wouldn't be hard to get one. You just seem oblivious to your own potential."
"Oh, I am in no hurry. Mother always said that it doesn't matter how long I have to wait as long as I find the right one," Viktor said with a warm smile as if he was thinking about his mother.
Tiana shook her head with a smile and said, "You better not get old as you continue to wait, hehe."
"Oh, I believe that I have all the time in the world," Viktor said with a veiled smile.
"Miss Snow. Here's the bill. Thank you for shopping with us. We hope to see you again soon," Briggs politely said as he offered her a bag with Dorian's clothes.
"Oh, no need for the bag. Dorian, you can keep them in your bag, right?"
Viktor nodded as he opened his backpack and transferred the clothes from the shopping bag to his.
But he wondered what Tiana was planning to do for her to go to such lengths of not traveling comfortably in her own car with bodyguards and let them carry whatever stuff she buys to her house.
It seemed more like she was planning on doing something to evade the eyes of her bodyguards, or her mother's to be precise.
"Okay, Dorian. Time for the main game. We are going to go out through the back door and go someplace else and then return back to this place and go out through the front door," Tiana said as if telling instructions.
"But why?" Viktor asked with a slight shake of his head.
Tiana sighed and said, "If you didn't know, my bodyguards always keep following me around from a distance and report back to mom whatever they see. I'm not too fond of that. So we are going to slip out of their crosshairs and go someplace else and then return to this place so that they wouldn't suspect anything but think that we have been shopping all day long. It's quite believable since I have shopped for more than ten hours in a stretch before."
Viktor had an incredulous expression as he said in a tone of awe, "Wow, that's a good plan. But I heard they could track your movements through your phone?"
Tiana waved her hands, "It's no biggie. I can take care of it."
Clearly, Tiana didn't seem like telling him how she was able to fool her bodyguards, and Viktor knew that it was because he had to supposedly pass her 'test' first.
"So, what did you mean by this test before?"
"It's simple. So far, they don't know the number of times I have done this before. And since you are coming with me today and tomorrow, my mother learns that I did something like this, it means you ratted me out. But if things go as usual and everybody else is in the dark, it means you passed the test."
Viktor inwardly smiled and wondered why she was going to such lengths instead of telling him to go home on his own. At least that way, she wouldn't even have to take any risks.
But he decided to play along and didn't plan on telling Taya anyway since he was accompanying her, "Of course. I would never rat you out. I promise," Viktor said as he pinched his throat.
Tiana curved her lips as she said, "Good. Now let's go."
She also seemed to leave some instructions to Briggs, and Viktor wondered if Briggs was in the loop as well, using him as a cover to support her alibi.
Briggs seemed to have no problems in agreeing to her instructions and offered a smile in return as he opened the backdoor for them.
"Now, you book a cab for us. I want to see if you learned anything at all when I showed you before," Tiana said, taking the pose of a teacher.
Viktor nodded, still having a fresh memory of the steps she took to book through the taxi app.
He took out his mobile, which had a large display, and made some swiping gestures as he located an app with the same icon as he saw in her mobile.
Tiana moved his hand, which was holding the phone closer towards her so that she could take a better look to see if he was doing things right.
She didn't have much hope for him to get it right, considering how he was new to using smartphones for barely more than a day.
However, as the seconds passed, she had a blinking expression when she saw his fingers moving without any pause as he easily located the app and then proceeded to do the exact same steps she did, and finally, a pop up appeared on his screen saying a cab was successfully booked.
"You really booked it…" Tiana mumbled as she looked at him with a strange look, wondering if all nerds were this fast at picking up things.
The only other genius she knew and acknowledged was Sayana, but now she felt as if Dorian probably was not any worse.
Viktor obviously wasn't blindly following the steps he memorized, but he also took his time to read through what appeared on the screen so that he could understand what he was doing at least.
Only when he saw something that was beyond his knowledge did he make use of the steps he memorized.
Viktor said with a proud smile, "I really booked one. This is really amazing. Back in my village, I had to rely on my cycle to get by. But here, we can easily get a car by simply using a phone."
Viktor was really amazed by the small piece of technology in his hand when he thought back to how people during medieval times used to travel, including him.
He saw cars, bikes, buses zooming through the roads, and even metros running through the bridges above him with many tall buildings with huge displays in the background.
He wondered if they had any idea how much the world was going to change after so many centuries.
And while thinking about it, old and foregone memories surfaced up as certain faces flashed in his mind, making him smile softly to himself.
'I wonder how they would have reacted if they saw this world…' He suddenly felt as if he was missing those times and people.
"You are that happy, huh?" Tiana asked, seeing him softly smile while looking at his phone. She felt that village people were indeed amusing in a way.
Viktor realized his mind went off the trail for a moment and scratched his head as he said, "Yes...I think I am. So...where are we going?"