Chapter 23: The First Author (1)

It was a globular substance with about twenty sides, and it had receptors on the surface that looked like small bumps. This light green virus entered this golden retriever through its mouth and caused white cell depletion, vomiting, and dehydration. And right now, Brownie was in very bad condition. If the dog wasn’t treated within six hours, it would die.

The animal hospital was closed, but there was still a way. Young-Joon tracked down the structure of the chemicals that acted on the surface of the virus and the infected cells. He found five different kinds of treatment.

“Let’s go to the pharmacy,” Young-Joon said.

“What?” Song Ji-Hyun replied.

“You can open the pharmacy right now, right? Let’s go, hurry.”

Young-Joon picked up the golden retriever and started running to Song Ji-Hyun’s pharmacy.

“Wait for me!”

Song Ji-Hyun quickly ran behind him, but could not catch up to Young-Joon, who was carrying a thirty-kilogram dog. Of course, it was because of Rosaline.

At last, they were in front of the pharmacy. Song Ji-Hyun was still confused even as she was opening the doors with her keys. She had come here on a whim in complete panic as Young-Joon strongly suggested that they come here.

‘But is it okay to come to the pharmacy because the vet is closed? What can we do here?’

Song Ji-Hyun’s hand trembled, causing her to miss the keyhole several times.

“Stay calm. It will be okay.” Young-Joon comforted her.

When Young-Joon entered the pharmacy, he put down the golden retriever on one side and began rummaging through the shelves. His Synchronization Mode was on, so he could see the chemical structure of commercial drugs as soon as he opened the box.

After making a little bit of a mess on the counter...

[Cleo]

Young-Joon found the drug he was looking for. To be more specific, he had found hydrocortisone acetate, a component of the treatment. It was a hormone that was secreted from the adrenal glands, and it was a strong anti-inflammatory drug. No one in the world knew this yet, but it also was able to stop the growth of the parvovirus.

Young-Joon squeezed the long end of the Cleo bottle. He squeezed out two bottles and fed it to the retriever.

“What are you doing? What are you giving him?” Song Ji-Hyun asked with wide eyes.

“It says Cleo on the tube.”

“That’s an ointment for cuts on people!” Song Ji-Hyun shouted in shock.

“That’s right,” Young-Joon replied.

“No! Are you insane?”

Surprised, Song Ji-Hyun pushed Young-Joon out of the way and hugged her dog.

“Brownie!”

She was shaking the dog’s face and trying to get it to vomit out the treatment.

“The dog’s name is Brownie? What a name...”

Song Ji-Hyun did not reply and took out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the cupboard with an angry face. She ran to the water dispenser and got some cold water. As she was about to mix in an equal amount of hydrogen peroxide into the water, Young-Joon grabbed her arm.

“You’re trying to get Brownie to vomit, right? There’s no need.”

“Let go! What did you do to...”

“Your dog is alive. Look.”

Young-Joon pointed to Brownie. The dog still couldn’t get up, but it was now conscious. It was staring at Song Ji-Hyun.

“...”

There was a look of shock on Song Ji-Hyun’s face.

Whimper... Whine...

When Song Ji-Hyun got close, Brownie made crying sounds and licked her finger.

“Still, it’s just a temporary treatment. Take her to the vet right away when it opens. It looks like it’s a parvovirus infection, which doesn’t have any kind of treatment.”

‘Well, it didn’t exist until now.’

“You’re going to have to treat the symptoms and take care of it so that the dog can beat it on its own,” Young-Joon said.

It didn’t look like Young-Joon would have to administer more Cleo as Brownie was getting better, according to what he saw through Synchronization Mode. Since it was a big dog, it would be able to heal on its own by getting enough rest and eating well.

“...What on Earth did you do?” Song Ji-Hyun asked in bewilderment. “How did you know an ointment for human skin would be effective on a dog?”

‘Because Rosaline told me.’

But it was normal that Song Ji-Hyun was surprised. Even drugs that were being sold could have unknown therapeutic effects or be toxic to specific patients or illnesses, but most pharmacists, doctors, and scientists did not know that. People were unexpectedly finding anticancer effects or antibiotic properties in vegetables like tomatoes, which people have eaten for thousands of years. It was the same for commercial drugs; they could also have properties that even the scientists who studied and commercialized them were not aware of. Recently, a study showed that minocycline, a widely used antibiotic, could delay the onset of dementia, which was surprising. Minocycline was already being sold as its own product, but no one had known that it had therapeutic effects on dementia.

It was natural; how could someone imagine a toxin, which was used to kill harmful bacteria in the gut could help prevent brain cells from being destroyed? There was no reason to experiment because no one would expect something like that, and so, its effects would never be known.

Similarly, how could someone figure out that an ointment treatment for cuts could be given to dogs to suppress the growth of the parvovirus and infections? If it wasn’t for Rosaline, nobody would have known it for a hundred years.

To Song Ji-Hyun, who was a pharmacist very knowledgeable in drugs, it looked like Young-Joon was magical.

‘But I can’t tell her that Rosaline is the one who told me.’

Young-Joon made an excuse.

“There was some data related to this from our company. I used it because it was an emergency and your dog was in bad shape, but you can’t go around talking about it, okay? I trusted you and used it because it was urgent. I couldn’t let your dog die.”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Song Ji-Hyun just stared at Young-Joon in surprise. It seemed like she was still in shock.

“Anyway, go to the vet once it opens. I’ll be on my way. I kind of want to take a shower since I exercised,” Young-Joon hurriedly made an excuse to leave.

“Wait!”

Song Ji-Hyun quickly stopped him as Young-Joon was about to leave.

“Um...”

She looked a little flushed.

“Thank you. I’ll treat you to a meal sometime. If it’s okay, could I get your number...”

Song Ji-Hyun slowly gave her phone to Young-Joon.

‘Holy. I’ve never had someone get my number in my life.’

Young-Joon took her phone and put in his number.

“You said your name was Ryu Young-Joon?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.

“Yes.”

“My name is Song Ji-Hyun.”

“I know, I saw your name tag that was on your gown.”

“Oh, really? Anyway, I’ll give you a call once Brownie gets better. Thank you.”

“Alright. Take care.”

Young-Joon bowed slightly and left the pharmacy.

On the way home, Young-Joon’s heart was thumping with excitement from coming up with an amazing idea. He ran faster than when he was jogging and came home.

Instead of hopping in the shower, he turned on Rosaline’s status window first.

‘I’m going to make new drugs for animals.’

This would allow him to bypass clinical trials as a whole since he didn’t need to do them. Animal experiments were the alpha and omega of drug development; if he could prove that the drug had effects during this stage, he could commercialize it right away.

It felt like he had taken a step down since he was making doggy drugs now when he made a flu treatment candidate that was worth three billion won, but it didn’t matter. It was all about quantity.

Since animal disease treatments have not been studied well, there weren’t many drugs that had been discovered. For example, there were five different kinds of treatments that showed up when he looked into the parvovirus. And Young-Joon would be able to patent it all since there was nothing that had been found before. He would be able to find dozens of potential drug candidates.

One sophisticated drug that cured a complex disease was good, but gathering a bunch of patents with drugs that weren’t time-consuming was also good when Young-Joon didn’t have any foundation yet. And since a lot of people were invested in pets now, the drugs would be pretty valuable.

It would be on a whole different level if Young-Joon expanded it to the livestock industry. There were countless animals that died every time the bird flu or cholera went around. They died meaningless deaths, and it was also a huge economic loss, even in Korea, where the industry wasn’t very big. How worse would it be for places like the USA? It would have unimaginable merit.

* * *

“I’m done! Freedom!”

It was Monday past midnight. Patent Attorney Lee Hae-Won had just completed the papers necessary for the patent for Young-Joon’s flu treatment. It kept her busy for the entire week. She actually had the draft finished on Thursday, but she took her time and was thorough; she had put her effort into it since Young-Joon was her first client after opening her own office, and since he had come here on Park Joo-Hyuk’s recommendation.

Now, all she had to do was submit the documents and data. But she had to send them to Young-Joon first as she had to cross-check with the patent holder.

Ring.

After sending Young-Joon an email with the documents regarding the patent filing, she went onto Coupang and began to do some internet shopping.[1]

“Now, let’s have some fun.”

She saw that a portable hand warmer with a kitty character design that also worked as a charger was only 19,800 won. Lee Hae-Won bought that, considering it a gift for herself since she worked until night on the weekends.

‘I’m also out of water.’

She also ordered six two-liter water bottles.

Lee Hae-Won read a few news articles, then took some selfies and posted them on Instagram.

[It’s a Sunday, but I worked hard!! #LateNights #PatentAttorney #Patent #HaeWonInternationalPatentOffice #...]

As she was about to write #newdrug, a message notification popped up at the top of her phone screen.

[This is Young-Joon. Please give me a call when you have time. Now is fine as well if you’re awake.]

Lee Hae-Won called.

—Hello.

“Hello.”

—Sorry to bother you this late at night.

“That’s fine! I just finished your patent application documents. Did you see the email I sent you?”

—Yes, that’s the reason I messaged you.

“Yes. I will proceed with it if you’re okay with it. The experimental data just needs to be given in a year. That’s alright with you?”

—The cell experiment data will probably come out next week. It will take a little longer with the animal experiment data, though.

“Really?” Lee Hae-Won was shocked at how fast Young-Joon finished the job since it usually took people around a year.

“I guess it was a very effective drug. Let me know when you get the data. We should discuss the data together and decide what parts to take for the patent.”

—Yes, let’s do that. And I have more drugs to file patents on.

“You have more?”

—Yes. They are new drugs for pets and livestock. I want you to file them out.

Young-Joon looked through the patent application Lee Hae-Won wrote, and it was quite good. Park Joo-Hyuk had really recommended a good attorney. He decided to leave all of his new pet drugs to her.

“How many?” Lee Hae-Won asked.

—122.

“Pardon?” Lee Hae-Won reacted as if she just doubted what she heard.

—I am going to file patents for 122 drugs for thirty-four different diseases. I will send them to you right now.

Shocked, Lee Hae-Won was at a loss for words.

“...”

‘122?’

Lee Hae-Won was sure she heard Young-Joon right, but she could not understand what he was saying. It kind of felt like a mukbang BJ saying that they were going to have a light snack of thirty Big Macs, two hundred fries, and three liters of Coke.[2]

“122 as in one hundred in the Arabic numbers that I know, and twenty-two more than that?”

—That’s right. It’s a lot, right?

“...”

Lee Hae-Won blanked out for a bit, then asked, “122? No, how...”

—Relax, you heard me right. I’ll send you all of them by email, so please take a look at them.

“What stage are the drugs at?”

—They haven’t been synthesized yet.

“Oh, so you’re filing patents for the ones that will have therapeutic effects?”

—No. They will all be effective.

“...”

—I should have results in about three months if I press Reaction Chemistry and Cell Bio hard. Although, I will have to use some money. What would your rate be at?

“I haven’t done anything this big before, so...”

—Does that mean I can’t ask you?

“No! I’ll do it! Leave it to me!” Lee Hae-Won shouted with determination.

* * *

On Monday morning, Lab Six Director Gil Hyung-Joon was shocked when he saw the documents that the law office sent him. It was because of the patent application Young-Joon filled out and the contract he electronically created.

“This crazy bastard!”

Gil Hyung-Joon threw the papers on the floor, fuming with anger. His assistant was standing near him and stared at him in surprise.

“Look at what this asshole wrote! He put his share as ten percent and left the eighty percent as funding for his department. Is the company his fxxking playground or something?!”

He slammed his fist on his desk.

“Call this bastard right now. No, I’ll do it myself. I knew what this guy would be like from the moment he swore at Director Kim. He’s a tumor to this company.”

Gil Hyung-Joon roughly grabbed his phone and dialed Young-Joon’s number.

1. Coupang is the Korean-equivalent of Amazon. ?

2. Mukbang is a broadcast/video where the host consumes food as they talk to the audience. ?