Chapter 27: A Supernova In the Scientific Community (1)

The interview did not take too long as Young-Joon had already prepared what he was going to say. Jessie also thought that this interview may be more important than the paper itself, but Young-Joon was sure; it

was

more important, especially for his future.

Young-Joon had prepared for this interview a while ago. It was an interview that scientists all around the world were going to see, and countless reporters in Korea would fight to publish it first.

For a moment, a massive amount of fame and honor would be given to him, and Young-Joon could not miss that opportunity. However, he had to get the timing right as the deadline for his promise to Ji Kwang-Man was getting close. This couldn’t blow up too fast, and it couldn’t be too late since all the excitement would die down. Young-Joon was about to take a bold first step toward the goal of becoming A-Gen’s largest shareholder and CEO.

When Young-Joon finished the interview, it was time for him to go home. He thought it would be okay if he produced the data to prove the retinal degenerative mice regained vision a little slower.

“I’m heading out. Good work, everyone.”

Young-Joon said goodbye to the members of the Life Creation Department.

“Take care!”

“Have a great weekend!”

Jung Hae-Rim and Bae Sun-Mi waved.

As Young-Joon was going down on the elevator, he saw that he had missed a call from someone. It was from a number he didn’t know. He pressed the button to return the call.

—Hello?

It was the voice of a young woman.

“I called because I missed a call from this number.”

—Oh, yes. This is Young-Joon’s phone, right?

“Yes it is.”

—I’m... Song Ji-Hyun. From the pharmacy outside Jungyoon University.

“Oh, yes. Hello.”

—Haha, hello.

Song Ji-Hyun laughed as if she was a little embarrassed. Then, there was a moment of awkward silence.

—My Brownie is healthy thanks to you. She’s in the hospital right now, but they said she’ll get better soon.

“That’s a relief. But what did you call me for?”

—Oh, did you get off work by chance?

“Yes, I just left.”

Again, there was a moment of silence.

—Then, um... Do you want to grab dinner together if you haven’t yet? We could grab drinks if you want.

Song Ji-Hyun asked Young-Joon cautiously.

“Do you like drinking?”

—I kind of want to today.

“Then, should we go somewhere like an izakaya?”

—Sure. Do you want to meet me at the intersection in front of Jungyoon University? There’s a good place around there that I know of.

“I think I know where you’re talking about. Late Night Kiyoi?”

—Yes! How did you know?

“Because I’ve lived there for ten years. I think I’ll arrive there in about thirty minutes. I’ll meet you there.”

* * *

Young-Joon met Song Ji-Hyun at the intersection in front of Jungyoon University, and she was shockingly beautiful. He did think that she was pretty, but she was even more beautiful when she was dressed up.

“How is your dog? It was parvo, right?” Young-Joon asked Song Ji-Hyun on the way to the izakaya.

“It was. And she’s much better now. I thought something was going to happen to her when she collapsed, but she lived thanks to you.”

“That’s good.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

“That’s a relief.”

‘A relief?’

As Young-Joon stared at her, she said, surprised, “Oh! I just thought it wouldn’t be right to call you out for drinks if you had a girlfriend. So...”

“Oh, okay.”

Kiyoi was a Japanese bar with rooms. The rooms weren’t closed off with doors, but big curtain-like pieces of fabric with traditional Japanese drawings separated the room from the outside.

Young-Joon and Song Ji-Hyun got a table and sat down.

“What would you like? It’s on me,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“Can I have something expensive?”

“Of course. You saved Brownie’s life.”

“But why did you name a golden retriever Brownie? Don’t you usually name them by their color?”

“It’s because I like brownies.”

“Oh, you like sweets.”

“Brownie’s mom’s name is Whipped Cream.”

“Wow, you really like sweets... Do you eat sweets with alcohol, too?”

“No, anything is fine. And is there anything sweet at an izakaya anyway?”

“No. Should we get sukiyaki?” Young-Joon asked as he pointed to the menu. Song Ji-Hyun smiled.

“Sure. What would you like to drink?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.

“Soju?”

“What about sake?”

“Hm, I guess you’re loaded.”

“Someone came to our pharmacy and got probiotics and vitamin supplements and three bottles of cold medicine. I made a lot of money thanks to him.”

“I’ll keep buying it from there when I run out of probiotics. I’ll get the one with bifidobacterium, the one you said was good for constipation. The one that you take.”

“Agh... That’s not true. I don’t take it because of that.”

After they exchanged a few jokes, Song Ji-Hyun ordered the food and drinks. Then, she began to ask Young-Joon a bunch of things from how old he was, to how his research on stem cells was going and how he found his work. But she did not ask where he worked.

Young-Joon was preparing himself mentally as he knew that Song Ji-Hyun would not like it if he told her that he worked at A-Gen. Then, he asked, “Ji-Hyun, why did you take time off work?”

“Hm.”

Song Ji-Hyun became noticeably downhearted. Song Ji-Hyun’s expression was so familiar that he almost asked her if she was punished after cursing at someone at her company.

“Our company, Celligener, is basically a vassal of A-Gen.”

“Pardon?”

Young-Joon’s eyes widened.

“A-Gen invested a lot of money into Celligener, and our management is being dominated by that capital.”

“What are you talking about? I thought your company sold the liver cancer drug you made to A-Gen?”

“We did.”

“Then you would have some money. Why would you get someone like A-Gen to invest?”

“We didn’t get the investment after selling the patent to the new drug.”

“Then what was it?”

“The condition to sell it was an investment.”

‘What kind of bullshit was this? Didn’t A-Gen pay them ten billion won for the patent for the treatment? But that was investment?’

“What kind of contract did you sign for that? So, they were taking the new liver cancer drug, this huge new technology, and on top of that, they are taking more if their investment is profitable?”

“It’s unfair.”

“Why on Earth did you sell your drug under those conditions?”

“We were threatened.”

“What?”

“They said that Celligener could be a huge pharmaceutical company if they accept this investment offer, but we would have to close our doors if we refused.”

“That’s what they said? Really?”

“Word for word. I still remember a few of them. Their faces and their names and their position.”

“... Who was it?”

“First of all, Kim Hyun-Taek, the lab director of A-Gen,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

Young-Joon closed his eyes. It was Kim Hyun-Taek again.

‘Damn it. This damn old snake...’

“There were a few people from management as well. This person named Yoon Bo-Hyun was an assistant manager, and I remember him especially well. He was very smirky.”

Yoon Bo-Hyun. He was an assistant manager at the time, but now he was a manager. It was because of Yoon Bo-Hyun that Young-Joon tested Cellicure, the liver cancer treatment drug from Celligener. He had come to the lab from management and asked Young-Joon himself to conduct an experiment with it.

Young-Joon also thought it was a little odd as scientists were usually assigned things from the lab director. It was weird that an assistant manager from management came out of the blue and asked Young-Joon, who was at a lab far away from the headquarters.

It wasn’t about capability, but it was because management didn't usually do that, especially if they were only an assistant manager. He probably did it since Kim Hyun-Taek approved it, but Young-Joon was still suspicious of him. Personally, he predicted that the plan to destroy Cellicure started from Yoon Bo-Hyun or someone close to him.

“But can A-Gen shut down another company, no matter how strong they are?” Young-Joon asked.

“You’re naive.” Song Ji-Hyun smiled bitterly.

“A-Gen is not just any pharmaceutical company. They have a close relationship with people in politics, press, and key institutions and huge pharmaceutical companies outside the country.”

“...”

“And since pharmaceutical companies have to close their doors if the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety doesn’t approve, they are directly in the hands of politics.”

“No, but still... It’s just so shocking. They’re not gangsters, but how...”

“They are gangsters,” Song Ji-Hyun said, clenching her jaws.

“Even if they don’t use the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, they could obstruct retailers, or cut off the supply of equipment and reagents we need to develop new drugs. They said that there are a lot of things that A-Gen could do.”

“Oh my...”

“So, the contract for the ten billion won investment and transfer of the new drug ended with our CEO signing it. The investment itself wasn’t a small amount of money for a venture company, and we really thought that the company would grow with things like technological alliances and sharing of facilities since A-Gen was going to develop us. At the time, of course.”

Song Ji-Hyun added, “But we were wrong. Since then, they suddenly were giving us subcontracts related to new drug developments. It was basically grunt work.”

“Oh...”

“They weren’t supporting the research we were doing. They were giving us the difficult and hard things from things they were studying that weren’t important. To be honest, our company is basically an accessory of A-Gen right now.”

“Oh my god...”

Song Ji-Hyun sighed.

“Celligener is a really capable startup company. I’m not saying this because it’s our company, but there are a lot of key players from big companies or famous universities.”

“Of course. You wouldn’t have been able to make a new liver cancer drug if you didn’t have the skills to do it.”

“A-Gen wanted those human resources and the technology. A-Gen almost wanted to make Celligener into their seventh lab. They thought they could get a lot of output from here since there were a lot of skilled scientists.”

“So was that why you took off work? Because that situation took a toll on you?”

“Oh, we were talking about why I took off work, right?”

Song Ji-Hyun laughed.

“I didn’t take off work because it was hard on me. Everyone at Celligener is like family to me. I couldn’t just abandon them because it was hard.”

“Then...?”

“I wanted to expose the terrible things A-Gen did. Since I have a pharmacist license, I was going to try to use the power of the Pharmaceutical Association to keep them in check.”

“So were you able to?”

“No. All I found was that the A-Gen cartel was much bigger than I thought. I didn’t know it was that big at first, but A-Gen invests huge amounts of money to medical and pharmacy schools and hospitals in the country as donations.”

“Oh...”

“The association was full of A-Gen’s people as well. Now, you could say that Korea’s medical and pharmaceutical field is in the hands of A-Gen. I couldn’t do anything.”

“I see.”

Song Ji-Hyun sipped her sake with a depressed face.

“Then what are you going to do now?” Young-Joon asked.

“I have to return to work.”

Song Ji-Hyun let out a sigh.

“Actually, I go back to work next week. My aunt’s vacation ended, so I won’t be at the pharmacy if you come anyway.”

Young-Joon nodded dejectedly.

“Young-Joon.”

“Yes?”

“You work at A-Gen, right?”

Young-Joon was surprised.

“How did you know...?”

“Haha, I thought so. You talked about A-Gen and stuff when you bought your supplements,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“And after I told you about how A-Gen stole our liver cancer drug, it seemed like you didn’t really want to tell me the name of your company.”

“... That’s right.”

“It’s okay. A-Gen is a huge company, and you’re part of the Stem Cells Department, right? You probably didn’t know that your management got rid of another company’s anticancer drug.”

Young-Joon felt his heart ache out of guilt.

“Actually...”

“Oh! And about our company’s probiotics... We made an important technology.”

“An important technology?”

“Probiotics are living bacteria, right? We have to coat them so that they can safely get to their destination safely without getting easily destroyed in the stomach, so we developed a coating technology based on Roche’s product. But it’s more advanced.”

“Are you allowed to tell me information like that?” Young-Joon asked.

“I told you because it’s you.”

“Pardon?”

“You told me your company secret in front of me to save my dog.”

‘Oh.’

Song Ji-Hyun was talking about how Young-Joon fed Cleo, an ointment for cuts, to Brownie to save her.

‘That’s not actually a company secret.’

From the perspective of Young-Joon who had Rosaline, that information about Cleo was as valuable as the information that this sukiyaki had two pieces of mushroom in it. It was just common and simple knowledge; to Young-Joon, it was as valuable as leaves on the floor.

“For some reason, I felt like I could tell you, and I wanted to. I wanted to level the magnitude of information.”

Song Ji-Hyun rested her elbow on the table and stared at Young-Joon with her chin resting on her hand.

“And it’s not really a problem since I didn’t tell you what that technology was specifically.”

She chuckled.

“Still, thanks for telling me. So, you have that kind of technology, right?”

“Yes. Although, I am worried that A-Gen will take it from us again...”

Young-Joon thought about the time he analyzed Roche’s probiotic product with Synchronization Mode. At the time, Rosaline showed him the most valuable bacteria strain that could be used, but she did not show anything about the capsule coating to send it to the intestines.

It could have been because Rosaline’s level was lower, or it could be because Rosaline’s analysis was limited to living things. The one thing for sure was that products that sent microbes to the intestines orally required not only an excellent strain of bacteria, but an advanced coating technology.

‘Wait. Couldn’t I incorporate the capsule coating that Celligener developed, which was better than Roche, with Chlorotonis limuvitus, the best microbe Rosaline presented?’

If Young-Joon dominated that market by commercializing an overwhelmingly efficient probiotic and gave Celligener the share they deserved through a technological alliance, it would be enough for them to escape A-Gen’s control.

The fact that their company ended up like that started with Young-Joon, did it not? Although he didn’t mean for it to happen, and there were other people actually responsible for this, he was carrying this with him.

“Why don’t you work with me?” Young-Joon asked.

“Probiotics and the Stem Cells Department?”

“The name of my department is the Life Creation Department.”

Song Ji-Hyun squinted. She thought,

‘What kind of name is that?’

“What does your department do?” She asked.

“As the name states, we literally artificially synthesize life.”

“But you said you were working on stem cells.”

“That’s true; we are also doing stem cells. But now, we want to try probiotics.”

“Then are you working on a cure for AIDS or anticancer drugs?”

“We are considering it.”

Song Ji-Hyun was bewildered. She thought,

‘What kind of ridiculous place is this?’

“You’re going to work in the food business in a few years then?” Song Ji-Hyun said jokingly.

“That’s a good idea, too. There will be a food shortage in the near future, and it is up to biologists like us to prepare for that and solve it. We don’t have to limit it to pharmaceuticals.”

“...”

“Anyways, probiotics. If you’re interested, give me a call so that we can set up a meeting with the CEO of Celligener,” Young-Joon said.

“If you work with me, A-Gen won’t be able to interfere with your management anymore.”

* * *

Young-Joon took his experimental data and went to the management headquarters at A-Gen.

“Is Division Manager Ji Kwang-Man in? We were supposed to meet now.” Young-Joon asked Yoon Bo-Hyun when he ran into him in the management office.

Yoon Bo-Hyun frowned.

“Go inside.”

“Thank you,” Young-Joon replied.

After Young-Joon went inside, Yoon Bo-Hyun mumbled, “That TMJ asshole. Something feels off about him.”

“TMJ?” Lee Na-Rae, an employee sitting next to him asked.

“Too Much Justice... I came up with the name. Perfect, right?”

Lee Na-Rae laughed with her hand covering her mouth. But Yoon Bo-Hyun was still frowning.

“I don’t think we should let him become more powerful... We need to step on him once.”