Syndedeménos (Connected)

CHAPTER 01

"Doesn't accept being drenched in wine, an employee from the Marygold Hotel sued the Aldrich family who were hosting a birthday party for George Aldrich's youngest child, Karen Aldrich..."

That was the narrative of the incident in the city of Bolero that just happened last night. Television was showing a scene where a boy had splashed the head of a person wearing a hotel employee's shirt with liquid from his glass.

"The behavior of today's children is not polite at all."

"To be more precise, the son of a conglomerate. I have educated my son well to respect others. But the son of a conglomerate doesn't understand how a servant struggles to earn a living for his family. Just look at how he disposed of that very expensive wine."

"Fortunately it's now very easy to record using a cellphone and put it on the media."

The conversation of three middle-aged working men had dominated the situation at a noodle shop located on the outskirts of town. The distance between the tables in the shop was very close and there were only five tables in one room. If the conversation was not dismissed, other customers who had been paying attention to the only noisy table for a long time will continue to feel disturbed.

A female waitress walked over with a tray containing three bowls of noodles. She placed the tray half-slamming it on the table of the three working men who had been noisy all this time. Made all customers silent for a moment.

"Three meat ramen," said the waiter in a deep voice as she looked one by one at the three men sitting around the table.

"Aih… Aquila… you startled us all," said one of the three men.

"Three of you are making a fuss in this shop."

Hearing Aquila's words, the three men immediately looked around. All eyes were on them.

"I'm sorry. We were just too excited about the news from the television."

"It's okay if you apologize. At least three of you didn't spill drinking water on Aquila. You even apologized," said a woman who responded to the apology wisely. Plus a smile.

Aquila smiled at the other customer, but immediately squinted as she looked back at the three men in front of her. It was as if her gaze was saying "Watch out if you dare to make a fuss again".

After the three men had lowered their volume, the sound of the television dominated the thirty square meter shop. Television shows the perpetrator who has poured wine is now apologizing in the video he just uploaded to TheyTube one hour ago.

Great, at least he apologized.

It turns out that the boy is from Ancient Eagle High School. It comes as no surprise because there's all children of conglomerates. They just pay the employee and it's all over.

Is it all over with just apologizing? Then it's okay for everyone to do something wrong, it's just a matter of apologizing.

Look at the wine in his right hand. The wine used is from a company owned by George Aldrich.

The media not only displayed the contents of the TheyTube video but also showed some pro and con comments from netizens. Aquila was silent for a moment watching the continuation of the news on television.

Aquila should have gone straight back to the kitchen to help the shop owner who was busy cooking. But the girl still didn't budge. For a moment her eyes could not leave the news with the title of the George Aldrich family member scandal.

*****

Karen Aldrich was watching the news about her birthday last night at the Marygold Hotel. As soon as she saw that her family's scandal was under control, Karen immediately got up from her bed to leave the room. A smile was etched on the face of a girl who was only seventeen years old yesterday.

Karen walked briskly along the corridor of her house. Usually it takes Karen about two minutes to reach her brother's room. But not this time. With her face still smiling widely, Karen knocked on the door of Keenan Aldrich, her older brother's room.

"Yes, come in."

After hearing a baritone voice from inside the room, Karen opened the door to Keenan's room excitedly. In a split second, Karen's gaze was fixed on the man sitting leisurely on the sofa. He was a well-built man with short dark brown hair. Even though corner of his eye caught a figure walking towards him, Keenan's sharp eyes didn't take his eyes off the news on television. The same news as the news Karen was watching in her room.

"It's so cool you were able to solve yesterday's scandal. What a reliable big brother."

Karen took a seat beside Keenan and looked closely at her brother's face. In Karen's mind there was always a question that arises about her brother : Keenan is very famous in his school because he is rich, handsome, smart and charismatic. But why doesn't Keenan have a girlfriend yet?

"Who else do you want to match your cool brother with?" said Keenan while snapping his two fingers on Karen's forehead because of his sister's behavior.

"Auch… it hurts you know."

Karen rubbed her hand against her forehead. As if it could take the pain away, but it didn't.

"By the way… how did you solve yesterday's incident? How could the arrogant Brian ever apologize?"

Keenan just replied to Karen's question with a smile. In his mind, Keenan concluded that his younger sister was not yet stable enough to know the various realities that were happening around her. The fact that the incident seemed to be detrimental turned out to be pre arranged to increase sales of wine from his father's company.

Currently, Keenan has been in the product marketing strategy section. He quite understands that any netizen comments that lead to wine from his father's company will make the product sought after. A hidden strategy that was quite widely used by various companies.

Instead of wasting Karen's energy asking a lot of questions, Keenan tried to divert the topic they were discussing. Keenan took out a box lined with maroon velvet and gave it to Karen.

"Happy birthday, my lil sister. Sorry I couldn't go to your event yesterday due to business."

"My brother is very smart, isn't he? When he couldn't come to his sister's birthday, he already prepared gifts and solved his sister's problems. You're the best!"

Karen hugged Keenan and opened the box that was already in her hand. The sparkle of diamonds radiated from a necklace in the box.

"Your taste is a bit mature, but you still act like a child," said Keenan when he saw Karen's surprised face as she looked back and forth at the necklace and the person who gave the necklace.

"You are my best brother! Of course in this house only Keenan understands me. Only you care… unlike our parents."

Keenan gently patted Karen's hair. Karen's cheerful face became gloomy, but not for long. Karen tried to be strong by showing a smile in front of her brother even though she still felt sad.

"I don't want Mom to come back here and see us sad like this."

Karen's words refer to the birth mother of Keenan and Karen who had disappeared 9 years ago. Since their birth mother left, no one has paid any attention to the two of them. Their father only cared about his work and their stepmother only cared about her appearance.

Keenan knew exactly that his sister was still sad. How could Karen not be sad, when his daughter was celebrating a birthday, George Aldrich even had planned a meeting with the board of directors. Meanwhile, Karen's stepmother had been on vacation in Hawaii with her beloved puddle.

At this moment Keenan wanted to comfort Karen a little longer, but a maid was knocking the door. A sign that it was time for dinner.

"Yeah, we'll be down in a minute."