Abandoned

In a private lounge on the chairman's floor, Auston and Minjun were seated while waiting for Kim Chan to finish up his talk with Frederick Yang. Zane had departed minutes ago after he got a call from his little sister, and Minho hadn't joined them yet. 

Auston was busy with his phone at the far end of the couch away from Minjun. He maintained his usual unbothered demeanor, and remained seated in the same sitting position unmoving. Except for his darting fingers and the occasionally blinking of his eyes, he assumed the perfect role of an elegant sculpture.

Minjun noticed how focused Auston seemed to be on his phone, and couldn't help but wonder what he might be up to. So in the end, Minjun stood quietly and carefully walked behind the couch over to him trying his best not to capture Auston's attention. He was eventually disappointed when he'd glimpsed Auston's screen and saw that he'd been playing this online puzzle game.

Minjun despised the said game. He felt that it was a total rip off because he hardly ever won. 'Tsk this friend of mine'. He couldn't believe that Auston was so engrossed over such an annoying game, 'And here I was thinking he was doing something interesting'.

Minjun was just about to straighten himself up and leave, when Auston's phone suddenly dinged and a message notification popped unto his screen. Minjun saw that it was Park Yuzuri - Auston's older sister - that had texted him.

"Yay big sis!", Minjun exclaimed and plopped down next to Auston, completely forgetting about his stealth plan earlier. Auston on the other hand, who'd known he was there the whole time just rolled his eyes and switched off his phone.

"Hey aren't you even going to reply her? Don't you know how difficult it is for her to go anywhere near her phone with such a busy schedule, especially now that she's on tour?", Minjun blabbered. "I am. So stop being such a gossip monger and leave", Auston coolly replied and Minjun could only release imaginary smoke from his ears in annoyance.

"Say, when is big sis Zuri coming back?. It's been long since we last saw her, and unlike you, she's way more interesting", Minjun retorted. He really did like Auston's older sister though, they were practically partners in crime. She was the only person that was able to keep up with his mischievousness and he saw her as a really fun and lively older sister - the total opposite of this friend of his.

"Soon, but it might take a while", Auston replied nonetheless and Minjun only nodded in understanding. 

"Minjun"

"Yeah"

"Why do you always continue to bug me even when I effortlessly ignore you?", Auston asked out of the blue. Minjun was slightly confused at his sudden question but replied anyway.

"Because it's fun. Since you always play hard to get, I see it as a challenge, and it only drives me more to want to rouse a reaction from you. But most importantly, I see it as my responsibility. Come on, how can you be friends with a talkative like me and I'll have no influence on you whatsoever?. 

That's an insult to my ego you know. Besides, you've got to learn to be more human and quit being such a frozen log all the time. I mean dude even Olaf gives off more warmth than you", Minjun concluded with an amused smile on his face. He really meant everything he said.

Auston remained quiet for a while, before he switched on his mobile phone and carried on with what he was doing after sending Zuri a quick reply. 'Huh? Seriously? That it?', Minjun thought. He didn't expect that kind of reaction from Auston especially after being compared to a snowman.

...

At Park family mansion;

Auston was seated with his grandpa along a well set dining table with a long stretch of food. Kim Chan had dropped him off at his mansion after he was done with his discussion with the Yang doctor.

Grandpa Park watched his grandson eat peacefully in silence for a while, before trying his hands on a conversation. "So, how was your day?", Grandpa Park started. "Good", Auston casually replied and then there was silence. 

"I heard Kim Chan returned today" he tried again. "Mm", was all Auston replied before they fell back into the quiet. Grandpa Park could only let out a sigh at his failed attempts at getting Auston to talk more. He looked across the table in Auston's direction with a glimmer of sadness in his eyes. He couldn't help but reminiscise on the past back when Auston was little.

Back then, they usually addressed Auston by his native name Chaemin. They used to be such a loving and happy family, everything was just great. His son Adrian loved his wife a lot and he knew how much Serena loved him too.

Their ancestral mansion back at country C used to be filled with so much noise and laughter after the arrival of Zuri and Chaemin. His family's presence never failed to make him feel so fulfilled . Those days, Chaemin used to be such a chatterbox, so lively and always asking questions on every little thing he found interesting.

He'd loved meeting new people and getting to know them, he'd even wanted to befriend the world. Everything was going well until Chaemin's sixth birthday came around the corner. Chaemin was born on Christmas, a holiday his parents loved so much. They'd even said that Chaemin was a gift to them from Santa Claus, and soon, Chaemin started to love Christmas too and it soon became his favorite holiday.

On Chaemin's sixth birthday, his Dad had left early in the morning to prepare a surprise for him. Chaemin had gotten up quite early that day out of excitement and was already being celebrated by everyone at home. However, Chaemin still felt upset at his father's absence, so Grandpa Park had decided to give his son a call and let Chaemin speak with him.

Chaemin cheered up instantly at the sound of his father's voice over the phone as he sang to him on his way back. Everything was going well, up until Adrian lost his focus on the road, and ended up in a bad car accident that claimed his life. 

After that day, nothing remained the same anymore. The mansion became gloomy in mourning and Chaemin blamed himself at such a young age for everything that had happened despite how much they tried to make him believe otherwise. 

Eventually they'd managed to pull through the loss together as a family, but just when things started getting better, on Chaemin's seventh birthday, his mother had left early that same morning and never returned. When they'd gotten worried and began to look for her, they found a message which she had left behind.

The message stated how much losing Adrian had affected her, and the torment she'd felt being around Chaemin since he reminded her too much of her late husband due to their shared talents and features.

Ever since that day, Chaemin's guilt returned worse than it'd been before. His health took a drastic turn since he barely ate and was constantly crying. He'd waited and waited and waited, with hope that his mother would return...but she never did. After that, Chaemin's character changed.

He stopped being so bubbly and barely even said a word. He spoke so little that Grandpa Park feared that he was gradually growing dumb. Grandpa Park had contacted many health and psych professionals but nothing seemed to help as much as he would've liked.

Chaemin's sadness had eventually grown into anger and resentment over the years. He'd decided to start answering his other name Auston instead since he didn't want to hold on to anything that reminded him of her. He'd even stopped celebrating his birthday and Christmas as a whole. He despised that date so much - December 25th - that cursed day he lost the two people that meant a lot to him...the day he was abandoned.

Once it was clear to him that his mum wasn't coming back, Auston had concluded that his mother was dead to him. For him, it was easier to accept that she was dead, because no matter how much he hated her now, he still couldn't bring himself to accept the fact that she had actually turned her back on them... because of him.

Grandpa Park sighed once again still staring at Auston's emotionless face as he ate. He had officially declared Serena dead because it was the best way to protect their royal image and avoid unnecessary scandals. The only people who knew the truth of Serena's 'death' were the crazy four along with Daryl Chen who penned her death down for his sake in his computer, though he archived it as a false record.