Chapter 43: A Player of Life (5)
A few hours after Ryu Ji-Won, Park Joo-Hyuk, and Lee Hae-Won left, the members of the Life Creation Department showed up. Young-Joon did hear that they were all coming to see him, but he wondered if it was okay for all of them to come to Daejeon together.
“Isn’t it work hours right now? It’s a weekday today.”
“We all took the evening off. We arranged all the work in the morning, so don’t worry.”
Jung Hae-Rim approached Young-Joon with a worried face.
“Seriously, what happened?”
“I think Ji Kwang-Man did this,” Young-Joon replied.
They all froze.
“What does... But is there a reason for him to do something this bad?” Park Dong-Hyun asked like this was unbelievable.
“Are you sure it’s Ji Kwang-Man?” Cheon Ji-Myung asked Young-Joon.
“I think so.”
“Do you have proof?” Jung Hae-Rim asked.
“There will be some soon.”
“Will be some?”
“Well, I reached out to some politicians, the prosecution, and places like that?”
“You?”
Cheon Ji-Myung tilted his head in confusion. It was like seeing a cow eat beef.
“It’s true. I just thought that it might not proceed according to the law if I let it be, so I just gave it a little nudge so that it would. Ji Kwang-Man will be caught in the investigation soon enough.”
“Oh my...”
“But isn’t it better for you to question him if you have suspicions?” Bae Sun-Mi asked.
“Then, it could look like I had a veiled fight for power with Ji Kwang-Man. I am going to keep my stance as the victim,” Young-Joon replied.
Since he had a lot of people who would play for him, there was no need for him to hold a knife and put blood on his bands.
“Other than that, how did the Alzheimer’s mice experiment go? Did we get the data?” Young-Joon asked Bae Sun-Mi.
“I win! Give it to me!”
Suddenly, Jung Hae-Rim exclaimed and put out her hand towards Park Dong-Hyun and Koh Soon-Yeol.
“Hmph. I’ll transfer you the money.”
“I’ll give it to you in cash.”
Koh Soon-Yeol pulled out a few ten thousand won bills and gave it to Jung Hae-Rim.
“What kind of bet did you have?” Young-Joon asked in bewilderment.
“I predicted that you were going to definitely ask about research progress and I bet my money on that,” Jung Hae-Rim remarked with a proud smirk.
“I didn’t think someone who was just hit by a car and lying in the hospital would ask about work,” Park Dong-Hyun said in a depressed voice.
“So, did we get the data?” Young-Joon asked Bae Sun-Mi again.
“I also bet that you would ask, so I brought my laptop. I’ll show you the data.”
Bae Sun-Mi pulled out her laptop and put it on the side table beside the bed. The first slide that showed up when she opened the PowerPoint file was the brain dissection of an APP model mouse. An APP mouse referred to a Beta-Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) model mouse. This mouse had a V717F variant in the APP gene, so the beta-amyloid protein kept accumulating outside the brain cells. As human Alzheimer’s was also caused by beta-amyloid proteins accumulating in the brain, APP model mice were basically a recreation of human Alzheimer’s in mice.
“If you see here, you can see the formation of the amyloid plaque, and you can see the locations where synapses were lost,” Bae Sun-Mi said as she pointed to the checkmarks on the picture.
“As time passed, the brain was continuously destroyed to turn into this kind of shape.”
She turned to the next slide. The picture now showed a brain that had a much more contracted shape than before.
“And the result of the stem cell therapy Doctor Ryu created...”
She turned to the next slide. Ninety percent of the destroyed brain tissue had been recovered. Now, there was no noticeable difference compared to a healthy mouse’s brain.
“They also showed significant improvements in cognitive ability and memory tests. I think that one hundred percent of their brain will be recovered if we give them more time.”
“We succeeded.”
Young-Joon grinned.
“Yes.”
Bae Sun-Mi looked exhilarated.
“Doctor Ryu, rest well and take your time. I’ll be preparing for clinical trials.”
* * *
Young-Joon was getting ready to be discharged. He changed into his jeans and shirt, and organized his stuff that he had set up in his room.
As he was packing up his stuff, the news came on the television.
—Today, the prosecution indicted Ji Kwang-Man, a registered director of A-Gen, who was immediately arrested on charges of soliciting the murder of Doctor Ryu Young-Joon.
On the screen, Young-Joon saw Ji Kwang-Man being bombarded with camera flashes from the reporters.
—The prosecution suspects that Ji had planned a hit on Doctor Ryu Young-Joon after identifying him as a threat to management. They think that Ji saw him as a direct enemy as Doctor Ryu Young-Joon became famous after obtaining a large stake in the company and becoming a director. He is denying all charges.
Ji Kwang-Man’s short interview came out next.
—I did not commission anything like that. I heard that my name was mentioned by the broker, but I have never seen him before, and...
—On the other hand, the Korean Organization for Rare Diseases and A-Gen shareholders organized a rally condemning Ji today as well.
The rally came on the screen. A woman in her forties was shouting into the mic.
—My daughter is dying every day because she cannot get a bone marrow transplant. People here who have incurable diseases and their families are all living in hell and on limited time. In the Science interview, Doctor Ryu Young-Joon said that he can cure all of that, and he has shown the possibility of that. Trying to kill Doctor Ryu Young-Joon in this situation is no different than trying to kill all of us!
—On the other hand, Doctor Ryu Young-Joon seemed very surprised that Ji was pointed out as the person behind this incident.
The screen switched to Young-Joon’s interview. In the VIP hospital room, he spoke to the reporters with a bitter face.
—All I have done was study hard for the growth of the company and the treatment of patients with incurable diseases. I cannot understand why he did that to me. It is shocking, and I feel very betrayed and sad.
Bleep!
Young-Joon turned off the TV. He went to the administration department to make the payment for his hospital bills, then went outside. He saw Park Joo-Hyuk standing there with security agents from K-Cops. There were three men and one woman, and they looked terrifying.
“My name is Kim Chul-Kwon, and I am the head of security.”
A man who looked like a statue from Easter Island reached out to him.”
“My name is Ryu Young-Joon.”
After they shook hands, he got on the van they had prepared.
On the way, Park Joo-Hyuk said, “About the thing you asked me about. There’s an empty experiment building fifteen minutes from A-Gen’s Lab One. Apparently, Lab One bought it with the purpose of increasing the number of research wards, but put it out on the market again.”
“We can buy that. How much is it?”
“Fourteen billion won.”
“They’ll give me a discount since I’m using it for A-Bio?”
“Looking at the general atmosphere in society right now, they might just give it to you for free if you just ask.”
“It’s better to take the proper route and just buy it. It’s not like I don’t have the money.”
“That’s true.”
Young-Joon looked at Rosaline’s status window.
[Rosaline Lv. 8]
—Metastatic Status: Heart (9%), Liver (47%), Brain (8%), Kidney (15%), Spinal Cord (8%)
—Synchronization: 16%
—Cell Fitness: 5.0
All the values increased significantly after this accident. He couldn’t help it since they were urgent injuries. Rosaline’s metastatic status increased as she treated the cut on the back of his head and fractures, and the synchronization value increased along with it.
Also, Rosaline’s level jumped from 4 to 8 as well. From games to English, leveling up was normally a good thing, but it was a little different for Rosaline.
‘Can I keep using her?’
Lost in thoughts, Young-Joon turned his head toward the window.
“But what is so loud outside?”
“It’s the rally condemning Ji Kwang-Man,” Park Joo-Hyuk replied.
“Where are we passing right now?”
“We will soon be at Gwanghwamun Square,” One of the K-Cops agents told him.
As the car reached the front of Gwanghwamun Square, Young-Joon saw a shocking view from his window.
“What is this?”
A surprising amount of people had filled up the plaza. Their shouting continuously pierced through the car window and could be heard from the inside as well. Young-Joon knew that they were talking about the rally on the news, but he didn’t think it was this big.
“The police predict 1.3 million people here today,” Park Joo-Hyuk said.
“...”
“To be honest, people are right to be angry. I would have also gone to that today if I wasn’t on security today. My grandma also passed away after suffering from Alzheimer’s,” Security Head Kim Chul-Kwon said.
“And they are even more angry because the person who commissioned the hit was an A-Gen director. A pharmaceutical company that should be developing drugs to cure patients basically tried to kill them all, so...”
Park Joo-Hyuk nodded.
“No matter what kind of network Ji Kwang-Man has, his punishment won’t be light if the situation gets this bad. His crime is terrible, and public opinion about him is bad as well. His life is basically over.”
Young-Joon still looked like he couldn’t believe it. He thought that something like this would happen if he strictly maintained his stance as a victim and exposed Ji Kwang-Man’s self-destructive foul play via the prosecution. He thought patients with incurable diseases would open a rally condemning A-Gen, making it difficult for Ji Kwang-Man to escape, but he didn’t expect it to be this huge. It was more shocking than delightful or touching.
“There are seven hundred thousand patients with rare, incurable diseases in the country. And a million cancer patients,” Kim Chul-Kwon said.
“...”
“Please fix all of them, Doctor Ryu.”
Kim Chul-Kwon chuckled.
“From what I can see, this country is sick. People are sick physically, but also mentally. Do you think someone in their right mind would try to kill you?”
* * *
Young-Joon moved into a luxury apartment for himself near Jungyoon University. He only packed the things he needed from his basement house and put them here. He bought most of the furniture as well.
Ryu Ji-Won, who heard the news on the day Young-Joon moved in, moved out of her dorm right away.
“Oppa, I’m here!”[1]
She put her bags on the floor as soon as she came in and took a deep breath.
“These are so heavy I almost died.”
“Should I have come and helped you?”
Young-Joon handed her a water bottle.
“No, it’s okay. I brought a worker.”
“A worker?
“Hello.”
When Young-Joon turned at the sound of a man’s voice, he saw a boy standing at the door. He was a big guy who was holding Ryu Ji-Won’s stuff.
“My name is Yang Dong-Wook, Ji-Won’s friend.”
“Hello. Thanks for helping out. Come in.”
“What happened to Ji-Won?”
She was sitting on the floor up until a few seconds ago, but she was gone now that Young-Joon saw. Then, they heard a scream from the small room.
“Ack! My room is amazing! It’s exhilarating!”
Ryu Ji-Won was jumping up and down in excitement.
“You like it that much?”
Young-Joon chuckled as he watched her from her room entrance.
“You haven’t lived in our dorm, right? It’s not a home. It’s basically like a human farm.”
“Farm...”
“Ask Dong-Wook. He lives in the dorm as well.”
Yang Dong-Wook nodded and added, “The upper floors hardly get any hot water.”
“Instead of getting water, they have cockroaches every now and then. The rooms are tiny, and they are not even sound-proof,” Ryu Ji-Won said with a feigned shiver as she thought about the disgusting circumstances.
“And I have a girl who’s a year older than me as one of my roommates, but man, I couldn’t live with her because she had no common courtesy. She kept putting on music and clacking her keyboard when I was sleeping.”
“Should I donate to Jungyoon University when I get rich so they can build some dorms? It is my university,” Young-Joon said.
“Then your name is going to be on the donor's plaque in the main hall. That’s cool.”
“I hate things like that.”
“Wouldn’t he get a memorial hall dedicated to him if he donated enough money to build a dorm?” Yang Dong-Wook said.
“You’re right. The Ryu Young-Joon Hall. There’s some empty land beside the engineering building, where they took down the Future Hall. I think they’re building a new building there, so they can name it the Ryu Young-Joon Hall.”
Ryu Ji-Won smirked.
“The Ryu Young-Joon Hall. That's hilarious. My oppa really is a great person.”
“Don’t mock me.”
“What? I’m serious. You saved me from a chicken pit.”
Ryu Ji-Won jumped into bed and laid down. She hugged her blankets and stretched.
“I was suffering from assignments and my job, but I can relax now...”
A silly expression crept onto Ryu Ji-Won’s face. Yang Dong-Wook saw her response and turned away with a faint red hue on his cheeks.
Young-Joon walked out of Ryu Ji-Won's room, he asked, “Dong-Wook, can I ask a personal question?”
“Of course!”
“Are you dating Ji-Won?”
“What? No!”
“I won’t say anything even if you are. I’m just curious. It’s normal for her to have a boyfriend since she’s all grown up now.”
“It’s nothing like that.”
“So you’re just here to help her as a friend?”
“Um... Actually...”
Yang Dong-Wook hesitated.
“I actually came here to see you, hyung...”[2]
“Mhm... Huh?”
‘What kind of twist is this?’
Yang Dong-Wook added, “I’m a big fan of you, and I’m in biological engineering. After you succeeded, a lot of students wanted to go to graduate school and work in Professor Ban Du-Il’s lab, the one where you got your doctorate from. And I’m one of them. Although, I still have a long ways to go until I go.”
“Professor Ban Du-Il.”
It was a nice name to hear.
‘I wonder if he’s doing well. I should go visit him.’
“Hyung, my dream is to get my doctorate at his lab and then go into A-Bio,” Yang Dong-Wook said. “It will be a really big company by then, right? Since it’s like ten years later.”
“... Yeah, sure. Probably?”
“You are the future of Korea’s science. Can I get your autograph after we organize everything?”
“But are you really releasing an Alzheimer’s cure?” Yang Dong-Wook asked him another question.
“Information about the research stages is confidential until we hand out press releases.”
“I had five million won that I saved from working, and I put all of it into A-Gen since they’re low right now because of Ji Kwang-Man. It’s going to be fine, right?”
“Five million?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should come to the special shareholders’ meeting and get some A-Bio shares. It won’t be a lot at the beginning, but you’ll be able to escape that chicken pit or human farm and move to your own place soon.”
1. Oppa is an informal way for younger females to refer to older males. It is used between friends, but also family. ?
2. Hyung is an informal way for a younger male to refer to an older male. ?
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