Chapter 88: The Diagnostic Kit (5)

When CTO Nicholas Kim retired, A-Gen would choose their next CTO from the in-house directors. How would Young-Joon react?

‘What would I do if I was Ryu Young-Joon?’

Kim Hyun-Taek often thought about that. Young-Joon was a smart man, and he made sure to take things that would increase research speed, even the little things. Then, wouldn’t he obviously try to take over that role, which would allow him to supervise all of A-Gen’s research and development. A-Bio was going well, but there was no reason for him to decline if A-Gen offered him everything. Normally, ordinary people wouldn’t be able to manage both at once so they would never even try, but Young-Joon definitely would. If Kim Hyun-Taek competed with Young-Joon over that position? He would never be able to win, as Young-Joon’s performance was overwhelmingly better.

It would be a problem if Kim Hyun-Taek won as well. The fact that he was the CTO and not a lab director meant that all of A-Gen’s research and development was in his hands. It meant that he was the supervisor of the technology competition with A-Bio. He was even less confident in this.

But he couldn’t give Young-Joon the CTO position and be his subordinate because he could find some dangerous data if he could access experiment records of all security levels in the company. There was no telling what Young-Joon would do with his personality. This was also the reason why Ji Kwang-man went overboard and tried to eliminate Young-Joon, who was trying to join the core of management.

‘Idiot... Should have done it well.’

Kim Hyun-Taek let out a sigh.

The best scenario would only be this: after Kim Hyun-Taek becomes A-Gen’s CTO, instead of Young-Joon completely being severed from the company and competing against them, he supports him as the CTO of A-Gen. It was a ridiculous plan, but there was one way to get this picture. Right now, Young-Joon was so popular that a girl group member said she liked him on a comedy show; he was the national hero. Kim Hyun-Taek was going to use that fame and prestige.

* * *

When Young-Joon was having dinner at work, he got a phone call from Ryu Ji-Won.

“Scholars Seminar?”

Young-Joon frowned like he was baffled.

—For your information, Chomsky visited last month.

“I’m not a world scholar. I think my professor is way too proud of his student.

—Why? He should be.

“Even if I have some good results, I’ve only been active for about six years in the academic community, even if you include my years as a grad student scientist. I’m not a scholar. No, I don’t want to. I don’t want to be annoying.”

—Why does that matter? Look at how many incurable diseases you’ve cured.

“The only treatment that’s been commercialized is the glaucoma cure kit, okay? The others are doing well in clinical trials, but a lot of drugs stumble in the second and third phase.”

—Even without all that, you should be called a scholar with just the diagnostic kit alone.

Ryu Ji-Won said.

“Hey, I can’t be called that, alright? Don’t say that anywhere else. People who are world-renowned scholars or experts are usually people who have researched for over thirty years or Nobel Prize winners.”

—One of those people is Carpentier or Carpenter, right? Doesn’t he work for you?

Young-Joon was at a loss for words.

“Well... He does, but...”

—Well, I delivered the message. Professor Ban really wants to see you again, saying he wants to benefit from his student.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“But still...”

—I’m hanging up, okay? I have dinner plans. I have to go now.

Beep.

After hanging up, Young-Joon held his head like he had a headache.

“What happened?” Park Joo-Hyuk asked.

“Ryu Ji-Won.”

“What did she say?”

“Professor Ban wanted her to ask me to do the seminar.”

“Seminar?”

“You know, the World Scholar Seminar we do every semester at school. The bioengineering department has to invite someone, and I guess Professor Ban is in charge of it. He asked me to come.”

“Wow. Doesn’t Jungyoon University use our tuition to bring legends in the field? I can’t believe you made it on that list.”

“I can go because I’m really indebted to Professor Ban, but that title is so cheesy and burdensome...”

“Why does it matter? Just ignore it and go. Didn’t you say that Professor Ban paid for your tuition and living expenses when it was really hard for you during grad school?”

“... Yeah. He’s an important teacher to me. I should repay that debt.”

There were a lot of incidents in the ten years that Young-Joon was being supervised by Ban Du-Il. He had made a mistake and caused trouble when he was doing an administrative errand, and there were times Ban Du-Il was put in a sticky situation when Young-Joon fought with other professors due to his personality. Still, Ban Du-Il protected Young-Joon until the end. Although most of the professors were psychopaths who had terrible personalities, Ban Du-Il had integrity and was humane.

“He’s one of the few people I respect as a teacher in this field,” Young-Joon said.

Young-Joon was reminiscing about when he was in university when Park Joo-Hyuk began laughing silently beside him.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Do you remember when you cursed at the school because they were using our tuition on such shitty things?”

“Did I?”

“Yeah. You were furious then. You heard from somewhere that they spent three million won to invite Jamie Anderson and you complained about it for the entire lecture.”

“Jamie Anderson is a racist. Why would you bring someone like that to the school? It’s demeaning.”

“What you were angry about back then wasn’t that Jamie Anderson was a racist, but that you felt like your tuition was going to waste for bringing that racist to school.”

“I was a student back then and I was poor.”

“And now, you’re the hippo that’s swallowing up that tuition.”

“Ugh... I’m going to return it so they can use it for scholarships.”

Young-Joon shook his head.

* * *

The World Scholars Seminar took place in the Grand Hall for the students. Professor ban Du-Il, who was in charge of the scholar invitation and event, briefly introduced Young-Joon.

“He’s the most famous person right now. Please welcome Ryu Young-Joon, CEO of A-Bio, to the front.”

When Young-Joon went up to the podium, all the students simultaneously pulled out their phones. They were all taking photos of him.

After waiting for the students’ excitement to die down a little, he greeted them.

“Hello. My name is Ryu Young-Joon.”

“Wooh!”

Clap clap clap!

Cheers and applause poured out from the students. Ryu Ji-Won was also among them. She was staring at him like she was very interested.

‘She’s going to take a picture and tease me about it for a long time.’

Young-Joon took a look at all the students.

“I came to Jungyoon University around ten years ago as an undergraduate student. And I did my master’s and doctorate here as well. Professor Ban here supervised me the entire way,” Young-Joon said. “When I was a student, I used to sit here and listen to the lectures from scholars all over the world, but it feels weird that I am the one up here now. I also think that title is too much for me, someone who is only thirty. I came here thinking that it meant that I should work harder.”

Young-Joon could see Ban Du-Il grinning.

“Professor Ban asked me to talk about some important things we are working on at A-Bio, important events in my life, or my beliefs. So for today’s lecture, I decided on the topic of research ethics and the diagnostic kit,” Young-Joon said. “The standards for research ethics change depending on how you obtain information about the disease from the patient and how you code it, and for this...”

The lecture had started. It wasn’t an easy topic, but it seemed familiar as the diagnostic kit was a very famous product.

Young-Joon’s lecture went on for about an hour and a half. There were a lot of students from majors other than bioengineering, so he stayed away from things that were too technical. He also translated all the words used in the field into Korean. He also made some jokes here and there.

Thelecture came to an end, and there was a question session.

“Are there any questions?” Young-Joon asked.

The bioengineering students all raised their hands first.

“Where do you get your creative ideas when you work?”

‘I can’t say that it’s from Rosaline...’

“Scientists have to read a lot of papers. You obviously have to dig deep into your specialty, but some research that is a little different from yours will help in getting creative ideas.”

“Have you considered being a professor at Jungyoon University? If I studied under you, I think I could actually enjoy studying for the first time in my life,” said one of the students.

The audience laughed a little.

“I like being a corporate scientist right now. Companies have a lot more money than the government or universities. Universities are a good place to do basic research, but companies are a good place to do product-related research. I want to be making products right now.”

The vibe of the seminar at Jungyoon University was light and friendly. Young-Joon’s image became friendlier and softer as the question session went on as he was an alumni that had graduated recently. There were professional questions asking about what was missing from the research they were doing, and there were questions asking for advice on going to graduate school. When it was near the end, there were playful personal questions.

“This is a little bit of a personal question, but are you dating Groovy...”

“Hahaha. I’ve never even met them,” said Young-Joon as he waved his hand.

The students laughed along.

“I guess we’ve gotten all the questions since people are asking about girl groups now,” Young-Joon said.

That was when a student’s eyes widened as they were reading the news on their phone. They raised their hand and asked like this was a perfect time.

“Mr. Ryu, apparently the Blue House is saying that they want to invite you as the director of the Office of Strategic R&D[1] Planning at the Ministry of Industry. They say it’s a CTO position for the country...”

Young-Joon squinted his eyes. The director of the Office of Strategic R&D Planning: the CTO of a country. It was a similar role to James, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology.

“Wow...”

The students admired him. Ban Du-Il froze a little.

That position was a minister-level public office role. Obviously, he could not also work as a board director of a company. If he went there, he would have to back out of A-Bio or A-Gen.

The student asked, “Are you going to take it?”

They looked like they were very much anticipating this. It was natural as they were already overpowered by the enormous title of national CTO.

“...”

Young-Joon thought about his answer for a moment.

“It’s the first I’m hearing of this. I’ll have to give it some thought.”

* * *

The seminar came to an end.

“Can we talk in my office for a bit?” Ban Du-Il asked.

“Yes, of course. But I just need to make a phone call.”

Young-Joon excused himself and came outside. He went to a place where there were relatively few students and took out his phone. He called Yoo Song-Mi, his secretary.

“Secretary Yoo, what is this about? What is this thing about the director of the Office of Strategic R&D Planning all of a sudden?” Young-Joon asked.

—It’s the CTO for the country. I was just contacted today, and the Blue House wants to invite you to be the country’s CTO.”

“...”

—I said that I would deliver the message, but... You’re not going to do it, right...?

Yoo Song-Mi asked.

—It’s true that it’s an honorable position at the vice minister-level, and it is an important position that coordinates Korea’s overall science and technology policies, but it is also a public office. You can’t work somewhere else.

“Yes. Did someone from the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy come by chance?”

—They asked for your schedule, so I told them that I would get back to them after asking you. The time you have available in your schedule now is five o’clock in the evening tomorrow, or two o’clock on Friday.

“Please set up the meeting for tomorrow,” Young-Joon asked.

1. R&D is short for Research and Development. ?