Chapter 57: A Next-Generation General Hospital (4)

Chapter 57: A Next-Generation General Hospital (4)

Ring!

While Young-Joon was reading the email from the Getty Foundation, he got a new email in his personal inbox. It was from A-Bio’s management department.

[This is a collection of emails regarding donations.]

It was working hours in Korea due to the time difference. They were sorting through thousands of emails and picking out the business-related ones that Young-Joon must read. When he clicked on it, he realized that the Getty Foundation email wasn’t the only one.

[We will organize small donations from individuals in a separate email and post a draft soon. We have compiled the emails that you should see as soon as possible.]

A link leading to the individual emails showed up as he scrolled down.

[This email is regarding donations from the Getty Foundation.]

[This email is regarding donations from the Abu Dhabi royal family.]

[This email is regarding donations from the British Royal Palace.]

[This email is regarding donations from the Ford Foundation.]

[This email is regarding donations from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.]

[This email is regarding donations from Guo Guangchang, a wealthy Chinese businessman.]

[This email is regarding donations from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, an Indian investor.]

‘...’

After reading them, Young-Joon saw that none of them were going to donate right now; they wanted to set up a meeting for a donation contract. Although a financial reward didn’t follow like an actual investment, people had reached out to him to donate to increase their brand worth by leaving their name on the hot topic of the next-generation hospital, or purely out of real humanitarianism.

Finally, it was time for Alice, the translator, to work after the meeting with Director James.

There was a little time before the IUBMB opened. In that short time, Young-Joon had to leave Rhode Island, check in at his hotel in New York and meet the sponsors who had the time or were in the city.

[The HR team is planning to hire a secretary for you. We will proceed if you confirm.]

That was the last sentence written in the email that management sent him. Young-Joon felt the pain that the management employees would have felt while sorting the thousands of emails.

‘I feel a little bad.’

A venture company that was launched a few months ago didn’t usually receive thousands of emails overnight. It was normal for the company email, which was managed by management, to only receive a few dozen at the most.

‘I didn’t think that thousands of people would want to send me an email.’

The employees working in management would have also been shocked.

[Good work. Please go ahead with the secretary hire. And please list my personal email on the company website. I will receive personal emails addressed to me by that address.]

Young-Joon responded.

* * *

This year, the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, or IUBMB, held their conference at New York University. It was not a venue strictly for academic exchange, but a place with strong business characteristics. Several start-ups and venture companies opened their booths, then went to find other booths to hold meetings and discuss each other’s business. They had to move fast in order to recruit investors and staff, and they had to draw in people who were walking past by handing out gifts. Celligener was one of them.

Song Ji-Hyun was sitting at the booth with Scientist Kim Soo-Chul. They were discouraged after hitting the wall of extreme indifference.

“No one is coming,” Kim Soo-Chul said in a depressed voice. “Even if we give people gifts and hold them here, they just leave, right? Ji-Hyun sunbae, what’s the matter with us?”

“There are over thirty start-up booths open today, and they are all pretty well-known. Plus, there are booths from larger, medium-sized businesses as well. And most of all, A-Bio opened a booth today. Everyone is interested in A-Bio among start-ups or small companies.”

“True.”

Kim Soo-Chul nodded.

“But I guess he isn’t here yet.”

He pointed at the empty booth across from them. A-Bio’s booth was put along with the other start-ups and small businesses since they were classified as a venture company. About thirty people had passed by here in the last two hours in order to meet Young-Joon. Some of them even took selfies in front of the empty booth.

‘It’s not some sort of tourist attraction...’

“We’re the same venture company, but there’s a huge difference.”

“It’s because they are in the eye of the hurricane right now.”

“Ji-Hyun sunbae, didn’t you say that you kind of knew him personally? You said you had drinks with him once.”

“We did once. Just one. Before he got famous. We don’t know each other personally.”

Song Ji-Hyun’s ears became red.

Clack clack.

* * *

Song Ji-Hyun was having a can of coffee while sitting on the bench in front of the building. To be honest, she was envious of all the other venture company booths that were here. She was confident she could advertise the fact that they went to phase one of clinical trials with an early liver cancer treatment if someone sat down at Celligener’s booth. But the problem was that she couldn’t even get to that part. Here, Celligener was a completely nameless company. They had some people show interest, but they were buried under the booths of hundreds of famous companies.

‘Is this natural since all we’ve been doing is A-Gen’s subcontracts?’

Song Ji-Hyun let out a bitter sigh.

‘Let’s go back inside.’

Sitting out here wasn’t going to do anything. A-Bio was an unusual case, and it was probably normal for start-ups to start in indifference, like Celligener.

As Song Ji-Hyun was about to get up from the bench, she could see Young-Joon far away. Four security guards from K-Cops were surrounding him. Young-Joon was talking to three employees from A-Bio who came to help and two men who looked to be investors. The woman wearing sunglasses in the middle translated for him.

After some time, people began swarming to that group like clouds.

Swoosh!

As the main entrance doors opened behind Song Ji-Hyun, the employees from Fidelity Investments ran out. They had heard that Young-Joon was here. Following them, people from Schumatix, Roche, Pfizer, and the IUBMB employees from New York University came pouring out. They ran toward Young-Joon as if they were escorting him inside.

“Sir!”

“Hello, sir. We are from Fidelity Investments.”

“Hello. We are from the Harvard Medicine Administration.”

“Sir, we are from the IUBMB conference. You didn’t participate as a speaker at our conference. If...”

Young-Joon was slowly walking toward Song Ji-Hyun while talking to them, but suddenly stopped.

“Oh.”

He had seen Song Ji-Hyun, who was a little frozen in surprise.

“Hello, Doctor Song,” Young-Joon said in Korean. Everyone stared at her.

“Oh... Yes. Hello,” She awkwardly responded.

“I was going to talk to you about some business if I ran into you here, but I guess I was lucky.”

The inventors and scientists around them all looked confused.

“Business?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.

“Yes. Not here. Later. You’re at your booth, right? Did you come out here to take a break?”

“Yes. I’m going to head back inside.”

“Then let’s go together. We’re probably going in the same direction anyway since all the venture company booths are beside each other.”

Young-Joon joined Song Ji-Hyun. He quickly introduced her and Celligener to the curious investors around them.

“Celligener is a Korean venture company that is doing collaborative research with A-Bio.”

* * *

Kim Soo-Chul was pacing and on his phone while keeping the empty booth. He was surprised by the sudden appearance of a large crowd. It was because in the middle, Song Ji-Hyun was talking to Young-Joon and walking together. She came to their booth, greeted Young-Joon, and returned to her seat, which was next to Kim Soo-Chul.

“What happened?” He asked.

“We met at the front of the building.”

She had received the interest of investors in the five minutes she walked here, talking to Young-Joon. As Song Ji-Hyun stood there, a little surprised at the unexpected attention, someone sat in front of her. They were the employees from Fidelity Investments.

“Pardon our behavior before.”

They formally apologized.

“We’re sorry, but could we still get to know Celligener?”

“Of course.”

Kim Soo-Chul handed them a pamphlet quickly. People were already lined up behind Fidelity Investments and waiting their turn.

Song Ji-Hyun gulped and began to promote Celligener.

“Celligener has developed Iloa, an early liver cancer drug, in just two years after launching...”

At the A-Bio booth across from them, Young-Joon was handing out USBs to two men wearing suits as gifts.

“These are USBs that have the A-Bio logo,” Young-Joon said. “The memory storage isn't very big, though.”

“Thank you. More than this, I wanted to see the A-Bio booth.”

They were the people responsible for the donation from the Gates Foundation. They had just signed a donation contract for fifty million dollars at the cafe nearby. Young-Joon was a little late to open the booth because of that, but it was okay. People who came after listening to his presentation at the International Integrative Brain Disease Conference had formed a long line in front of A-Bio’s booth.