Chapter 90: Cellicure (1)

Chapter 90: Cellicure (1)

With Young-Joon’s announcement, Nicholas became one of the most searched-up people on the web. Nicholas was a scientist who was very knowledgeable in biophysics and protein engineering. He was pretty famous in the industry, but it was the first time he had been in the spotlight so much as his job as a scientist was distant from the public eye.

Nicholas was having some tea in his office while he read Young-Joon’s announcement. There was a slight disturbance outside his door.

—Is the CTO inside?

It was Kim Hyun-Taek’s voice.

—Yes, he is. But did you schedule a meeting?

—No, but I’ll step in for a moment.

—The CTO has to leave soon...

—I just need a second.

Click.

Kim Hyun-Taek opened the door stubbornly.

“What happened?” Kim Hyun-Taek asked as he sat beside Nicholas.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to be the director of that office? Did Ryu Young-Joon tell you that he was going to do this?”

“Mr. Ryu.” Nicholas corrected Kim Hyun-Taek. “Mr. Ryu asked me to do this. He said that he needed to work more in the frontlines of research, but someone had to take that important position. He said he could trust me.”

“...”

Cold sweat ran down Kim Hyun-Taek’s cheek.

“So when are you going?”

“You’re worried that Mr. Ryu will take over the empty CTO position at A-Gen if I go right now, right?”

“... Yes.”

“Don’t worry. I am not leaving right away since the current director’s term is not over yet,” Nicholas said. “And Mr. Ryu does not want to come to A-Gen right now. He is looking for the right time. He is preparing to merge A-Bio and A-Gen and make this place his main base. The moment he will come to swallow this place up will probably be when he comes to do the stock exchange he promised with our CEO.”

“Mr. CTO.”

Kim Hyun-Taek stuck out his head close to Nicholas.

“Sir, aren’t you old friends with Mr. Yoon? Are you going to betray him? Do you want to hand over this company to Ryu Young-Joon?”

“All I am trying to do is appoint a person who is worthy of the CTO position of the country’s top pharmaceutical company that will be created as A-Gen and A-Bio merge. I don’t want to know about the rest, and it’s none of my business.”

“What if Ryu Young-Joon finds out about that secret?”

“That secret?”

“The one. About anthrax...”

Nicholas closed his eyes with a serious face.

“Confess. Turn yourself in the few months I have left before I leave the CTO position and Mr. Ryu comes here, finds out about everything and destroys everything,” he said. “I also delivered the message to CEO Yoon as well. When you and CEO Yoon decide, I will take care of the problems myself without dirtying Mr. Ryu’s hands and leave.”

Kim Hyun-Taek glared at Nicholas for a while.

“I can’t do that,” he said.

“Director, do not force me to expose that incident.”

“... You will kick yourself for this and deeply regret your decision.”

* * *

Kim Hyun-Taek, who returned to the lab, began making rounds to every department. This was one of the situations that scientists feared the most, as he would attack them until everything was burned down if he found one little thing he didn’t like.

“Who uses a pipette and leaves it on the lab bench with the volume adjustment knob still on? Who manages their equipment like this?”

The shouting started from Room 101, the first room Kim Hyun-Taek went into.

As soon as Principal Scientist Kim Joo-Yeon figured out the situation, she quickly returned to her lab and let the Anticancer Drug Research Department know.

“The director is making rounds to the labs from the floor below us and shooting everyone up, so pull yourself together and be careful of what you do.”

“Ah, again? What happened this time?” Senior Scientist Kim Hyun-Seok said irritably.

“How should I know? The lab director is going crazy today, so be careful. Senior Park, you didn’t write four days-worth of lab notes, right? Did you do that? He’s going to go nuts if he finds out.”

Park So-Yeon lowered her head.

“The entire company has gone mad! Ryu Young-Joon’s success story has made everyone insane. The CTO is already kissing his ass, so how could his subordinates be in their right mind?”

Kim Hyun-Taek clenched his fists and trembled in anger.

That was when...

“It’s hard for just a Scientist to figure out the progress of a project since it is confidential information.”

Ryu Young-Joon’s voice was heard from the office entrance. When everyone glanced at the door, he was actually standing there.

“How could someone call another department every day and check their progress? A regular scientist can’t do that. Aren’t lab directors the ones who should organize and assign projects and coordinate schedules so that departments can collaborate together? I don’t know why you’re angry at the newest person in the department for not doing your work that you passed onto her,” said Young-Joon.

“...”

Kim Hyun-Taek froze for a second, then glared at him with hostility.

“Doctor Ryu. Are you now coming in and out of my lab without telling me in advance?”

“I’m here because of an experiment for the diagnostic kit I developed last time. I got your permission when I signed the contract.”

“You’re done with that experiment.”

“If it was, the lab entrance wouldn’t even have opened with the Lab One pass that was temporarily issued to me,” Young-Joon said as he shook the pass in his hand. “Read the contract again because it hasn’t ended. And the reason I am here is to do a few additional experiments to improve that diagnostic kit.”

“...”

‘He’s developing it more? Here?’

Kim Hyun-Taek felt like his blood was boiling. He felt like he was going to faint because his blood pressure was so high.

“So are you saying that you are going to do experiments here?”

“Yes. And I need Scientist Park So-Yeon’s help because I have to use the PDMS chip. I don’t have a lot of time, so do you have more to say to her? Should I wait outside?”

“... No.”

Kim Hyun-Taek barely suppressed his boiling anger and left the office. Young-Joon watched him leave, then went to Park So-Yeon. She turned her head and didn’t look at him.

“So-Yeon-ssi, can we have a talk?”

“... Yes...”

Her helpless voice was teary. She turned her head so that Young-Joon wouldn’t be able to see her tears, but he felt like he knew what she looked like. She was definitely not in the condition to discuss work-related things right away.

‘I’m going to have to talk to her after I calm her down.’

Young-Joon took Park So-Yeon to the cafe inside the lab.

* * *

“Latte?”

“... Yes.”

Park So-Yeon kept wiping around her eyes with her fingertips. She was worried that her makeup had been ruined.

When she took the latte Young-Joon handed her, she choked up again a little. It was because it was a matcha latte, something she always used to drink when they were dating.

“Are you feeling better?”

“... Yes.”

“Don’t take it to heart since he does that often. Although, I think it’s a lot worse today.”

“...”

“Anyways, to get to the point, I’m thinking of redeveloping the diagnostic kit into a format that can be used in the pet and livestock industries,” Young-Joon said.

Park So-Yeon clenched her eyes shut, then opened them.

‘Let’s just talk about work.’

She swallowed all the words that came to mind. She sniffled then took a deep breath.

“... You’re talking about making a diagnostic kit for animals?” Park So-Yeon asked.

“Yes, that’s it.”

The international patent approval for the one hundred twenty two types of treatments for pet and livestock was almost finished. If he developed an animal disease diagnostic kit, it could create synergy with this.

The world livestock industry was worth more than thousands of trillions of won. Thanks to that, the amount of damage of livestock that were mass-killed by hoof-and-mouth disease, tuberculosis, and AI[1] every year was easily over a trillion won. It wasn’t easy for the person who does the killing, nor the livestock, nor the owners of the farm. Now, it was time to stop that.

Science that had been advanced to the extreme could put an end to the despair that repeated itself every year.

1. short for avian influenza, or bird flu ?