Cynthia Sun wishes she could remember more of her childhood. Honestly, she does. She vaguely remembers a pleasant childhood, but for reasons she can't quite remember, her family disappeared one day and, without any other known living relatives located to take care of her, she found herself very suddenly thrust into being just another statistic of the foster system at the age of 5.

One would think that an adorable little lone Asian girl would be quickly snatched up for adoption, but alas, that was not the case for Cynthia. The truth was, even at an early age, she had a bit of an attitude and penchant for mischief to her. It also didn't help her cause that she was smart as a whip and precocious beyond her years. Needless to say, she ran circles around every foster family she was ever placed with for the next two years. As such, each time, she always found herself back in the system before too long. But really, that was just fine with her, she would say if asked. She didn't need a new family. She already had one; she just didn't know what happened to them. This was a question that plagued Cynthia for the next 13 years until she eventually aged out at the point of legal adulthood.

A sense of restlessness drew young Cynthia to leave her childhood home neighborhood of Washington Heights. Hoping to one day find out more information about her family's disappearance, she was reluctant to leave the Big Apple. However, after the last foster placement gave up on her, Cynthia ran away before the social worker could pick her up and conned her way to the South Station Bus Terminal in Boston before local authorities caught up with her.

Cynthia found her saving grace in the home of a loving couple. A slightly older than typical set of foster parents, the couple already had a grown daughter of their own, though she has been out of the house for some time. The point was, luckily for Cynthia, they'd been around the block before when it came to handling challenging daughters. Every test of acting out behavior Cyn threw at them, the couple bore with patience and tolerant kindness. Two months flew by before Cynthia realized that this was maybe the longest placement she'd ever had and, more importantly, she didn't feel keen on leaving. To cement her stay, at the end of those two months, Their daughter came back, begging her parents to be allowed to return home with them. Cyn's kindly foster parents, of course, welcomed their biological daughter back with open arms. Cynthia, on the other hand, found herself worried for the first time about the possibility of being kicked to the curb by a foster family. Why on earth would the Chambers want to keep her difficult ass around if they got their real daughter back with them? But the good-hearted couple didn't dump her after their biological daughter's return. Instead, they insisted that their daughter learn some adult responsibilities and help mentor the young girl. In her, Cyn quickly gained not only a new best friend, but also a surrogate big sister figure.

Under the careful guidance of the entire clan, Cynthia grew up walking the straight and narrow more than she ever thought she would. From school she developed a penchant for the sciences, in which her eidetic memory was seen as an asset for her instead of something weird and bad that set her apart. Her academic performance allowed her a full-ride to Harvard, where she settled on studying biochem. Her primary extracurricular activities back in high school had included being part of the Yearbook Club and Photography Club. Her experience inspired her to take a campus work-study position with the Columbia Daily Spectator, serving as their social media guru. Mostly, she was interested in utilizing the resources and connections to continue her own investigation into the mystery of her family's disappearance, which became something of a side project for her throughout her undergraduate years. While she was endlessly grateful for the love and support of her foster family, and although they offered several times over the years, Cynthia never wanted to be formally adopted by them. There was a part of her that lingered in hope that she could still come across some inkling of what happened to her family of origin.

Before she knew it, four years passed and graduation was looming. With the ticking clock, Cynthia needed to think about next steps. Fortunately the lab that she joined back in her junior year, which studied spiders, was looking for a research assistant by the time her senior year was closing out. The timing of it worked out in her favor and Cynthia was hired after graduation to continue on as a paid researcher.