Chapter 15: Year-End Seminar (2)
People usually gathered freely for the year-end seminar. If all the scientists at the lab were close to each other, they would rent a bus and go together. If the departments all worked individually without a lot of joint projects, they would go separately by department. It was the latter for Lab Six.
Choi Myung-Joon and Seo Yoon-Ju of the Health Food Department arrived at the conference and walked over to where the coffee was. They greeted Hyun Mi-Ju.
“Heya~ Lead Scientist Hyun, it’s been a while.”
Choi Myung-Joon greeted her and shook her hand.
“Hello. How have you been?” Hyun Mi-Ju asked.
“Great. Are there any outstanding achievements from Lab One this year?”
“Haha, just wait and see. We have something huge. We did an important project with Scientist Park’s team over here,” Hyun Mi-Ju said to Choi Myung-Joon as she put her hand on Park So-Yeon’s shoulder and pulled her close.
“We also did something big with Scientist Seo over here, too,” Choi Myung-Joon replied with a chuckle.
“Is that so? It looks like our departments have bright futures. You guys should get to know each other since you are both young scientists. Both of you will lead the company in the future.”
“Haha, Yoon-Ju here is already leading our team. She contributed a lot in creating this year’s achievements.”
“Is that so? Do you have something good?” Hyun Mi-Joo asked.
“Similar to the year before. You said the Anticancer Drug Research team made something important. Can you tell me in advance?”
“Haha, you can see it when we present it later. The Award for Exceptional Performance is going to be ours this year.”
“Now that I think of it, a celebrity in our lab who has only been at A-Gen for a year said that their team was going to get the award.” Choi Myung-Joon mentioned.
“Celebrity?” Emerging from n0v@lbin☆, this material harbors clandestine details.
“The person who cursed Lab Director Kim Hyun-Taek in the face.”
“...”
“Ryu Young-Joon?”
“Yes.”
“Ahaha!”
Hyun Mi-Ju burst out in laughter. Park So-Yeon also covered her mouth and lowered her head, trying to keep in her laughter.
“Did Young-Joon say that?” Hyun Mi-Ju asked.
“Yes. That’s what he said.”
“Pfft... Well, Young-Jun is good, but... Chuckle... Oh my, what should we do about that rascal? It’s both funny and pitiful.”
“How was he at your department?” Choi Myung-Joon asked.
“He was smart and was good at his job. He was fine, but the problem was that he was too uptight. People don’t keep their mouths shut about the company being corrupt because they’re bad people, right? It bothered people that he thought he was better than everyone else. Going on and on about research ethics and whatnot. Phew, just an amazing scientist, really.”
“Haha, he was kind of like that in Lab Six as well. He had a little bit of conflict with Yoon-Ju over here, and it took a weird turn.”
“And no matter how great they are, it’s still the Life Creation Department. How would they get the award?”
“We laughed a while about it, too. I was starting to get worried about his well-being.”
“Hahaha!”
As the three of them were trying to calm their laughter, the main entrance doors opened, and the Life Creation Department came in.
“Hello.”
Park Dong-Hyun and Jung Hae-Rim walked into the conference room and grabbed some coffee.
“Hello.”
Hyun Mi-Ju, Choi Myung-Joon, and Park So-Yeon slowly approached and greeted them.
“Hello, it’s been a while.” Park Dong-Hyun returned the greeting.
“Where is Doctor Ryu Young-Joon?” Choi Myung-Joon asked.
“He’s on his way.”
“The seminar is starting soon.”
“I know, but we can’t exclude that data. And our lab will most likely be the last one to present.”
She was even more shocked.
“So are you saying that we should enter during the seminar?”
“That’s the best we can do.”
“What if it becomes our turn before Young-Joon gets there?”
“That is why Hae-Rim, you, will go first to prevent that worst-case scenario,” Park Dong-Hyun replied.
“...”
“We’re going to give Manager Cheon the data about the life creation experiment. If the situation you said happens, he will talk about the data from that experiment and buy us some time. I’ll call Doctor Ryu and let him know. When that happens, you stop everything you are doing and call a taxi with the stuff you have done. It takes twenty minutes from here to the conference room, and Manager Cheon can hold them off for more than thirty minutes.”
There was nothing but silence between the four people.
“What do you think? I’m not forcing you, though. Even if we take out the data about the cell differentiating into a heart muscle cell, this can still be an excellent presentation.”
“Then let’s take it out.”
Young-Joon was firm in his decision. Park Dong-Hyun was surprised as it was a bit out of character; considering Young-Joon’s personality, he thought that Young-Joon would ask to go all in even if they were biting off more than they could chew.
“Why?”
“If what Dong-Hyun sunbae says really happens, I have to interrupt and come up onto the stage while Manager Cheon presents.”
“You can. You can’t even do that when you called Kim Hyun-Taek human garbage right to his face?”
“I can do that, but how would that make Manager Cheon feel?”
“...”
“How bad would he feel if a new member ran the stage to present this huge accomplishment while he would have just been berated?”
“...”
Park Dong-Hyun, Jung Hae-Rim and Koh Soon-Yeol stared at Young-Joon for a few seconds with their jaws on the floor.
“Pfft.” Park Dong-Hyun suddenly began laughing.
“Phahaha!” Then, all three of them burst out in laughter.
“Ah! Crazy!”
Jung Hae-Rim hit him on the shoulder, and Park Dong-Hyun even wiped tears from his eyes.
“W-Why?” Young-Joon asked.
“Doctor Ryu, you are... very kind.” Park Dong-Hyun replied.
“Chuckle... Ah, I’m trying... Manager Cheon, you lived a good life... Even getting a subordinate that cares about you,” Jung Hae-Rim added as she also wiped tears away from her eyes.
“Thank you for worrying, Young-Joon, but you don’t have to worry about Manager Cheon. I told you that I’ve been at Lab Six for a really long time, right? And I can’t even say that I’m good at ignoring them in front of Manager Cheon.”
Koh Soon-Yeol nodded and interfered.
“He has been in our department for so long, he’s basically rotting...”
“Young-Joon, he may not look like it, but he spent sixteen years at the Life Creation Department. You don’t have to worry about him,” Jung Hae-Rim added again.
“He’s like a professional tanker or something. Ningen no namae wa tough-desu..” Koh Soon-Yeol added again. [1]
Park Dong-Hyun gathered up everything with a chuckle.
“And even if you got to the seminar early, you probably won’t be able to explain the embryonic stem cell project to him. Either way, you have to get up there and talk about it yourself, Doctor Ryu. We don’t have the confidence to explain it either. Of course, it’s breaking the rules, but it’s okay since our results are so good that it’ll easily trump small problems like that.”
“...”
“And Manager Cheon was criticized in the company for sixteen years. He would love it if his subordinate embarrassed the lab director. I’m actually worried that he’ll giggle as he thinks about the embryonic stem cells while presenting and getting berated by them.”
“...Okay, let’s do that,” Young-Joon replied.
“Good.”
“The two of you should go now. Soon-Yeol sunbae and I will organize the data as quickly as possible and follow you.”
Park Dong-Hyun grinned, took out the entire part about embryonic stem cells from the presentation files, and pressed save, saving the file as another name.
1. “Ningen no namae wa tough-desu means “That human's name is tough.” ?