Chemistry

17. 24h of troubles(3)

Three people were sitting on plastic chairs in front of the convenience store. Jeong-woo quickly went inside, bought some drinks, and placed them on the table.

“It takes three hours? We only need to check the antibody reaction after separating the serum. Don’t they have a centrifuge here?”

In response to Jeong-woo’s question, Go Eun-sil turned her gaze towards the tent protecting Kiki.

“There are more than one or two standard antigens we need to compare.”

“Standard antigens? You don’t even know exactly what disease it is?”

Go Eun-sil looked surprised at Jeong-woo, who was asking crucial questions.

“We’ve only had suspicions so far, no confirmations. There’s a livestock quarantine officer at the initial outbreak site, so we’ll be contacted. Then we can also use specific diagnostic kits.”

“So, you’re saying rushing isn’t the answer.”

Jeong-woo turned to Yoon Yi-seol sitting closely beside him.

“Are you okay waiting here longer?”

As Yoon Yi-seol quietly nodding, Go Eun-sil asked him.

“You’re not going to introduce me? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Well, you see…”

Because she was a well-known celebrity whose face was recognizable to anyone, he hesitated to answer. But Yoon Yi-seol spoke first.

“Oh, maybe Jeong-woo oppa didn’t mention me.”

Jeong-woo shot Yoon Yi-seol a look as if to say, ‘Why suddenly call me oppa?’ but her gaze was fixed on Go Eun-sil.

“I heard about you.”

Go Eun-sil met Yoon Yi-seol’s sparkling eyes peeking through the mask and hat with a puzzled expression.

“Do you know me?”

“Yes.”

“How… Oh, the forest fire? It was on the news a lot, right? Thanks to Jeong-woo, I survived.”

“No. When you were younger… um.”

Jeong-woo, feeling uncomfortable, grabbed Yoon Yi-seol’s arm and pulled her aside. With a gesture asking for a moment to Go Eun-sil, he whispered to Yoon Yi-seol.

“What are you doing? Why are you revealing everything in such a crowded place?”

“That’s up to Jeong-woo. Before, we weren’t supposed to know each other, but now we’re suddenly so close. I like you, really. Such a beautiful girl, being your first love.”

As he listened, Jeong-woo realized that Yoon Yi-seol was jealous of Go Eun-sil.

‘Was that it?’

Yoon Yi-seol glared fiercely at Jeong-woo, who chuckled softly.

“Then I’ll introduce you as I please, so be prepared.”

“Whatever.”

With a disgruntled sound, Yoon Yi-seol sat back down. Jeong-woo spoke to Go Eun-sil, who was drinking her beverage.

“Eun-sil, sorry. My friend isn’t in a good mood today.”

At this remark, Yoon Yi-seol immediately turned to Jeong-woo, saying, “What!”

But at that moment, Jeong-woo grabbed Yoon Yi-seol’s hand and placed it around his left arm, as if putting his arm around her.

“Sorry for the late introduction. Say hello. This is the girl I’ve fallen for. Finally we came out for a date, but we’re dealing with this mess.”

Go Eun-sil’s eyes widened.

“You’re dating her?”

“I’ll refrain from commenting on her name. I have to look out for this friend for personal reasons.”

Yoon Yi-seol stared blankly at Jeong-woo. Go Eun-sil, who had been watching them with a surprised expression, smiled faintly and stood up.

“I guess it wasn’t an open ending.”

“Huh? What?”

“Oh, nothing. Seems like I shouldn’t disturb your date any further. Let’s quickly go and separate the serum, and start with Kiki’s test.”

“You can do that?”

“I should provide such convenience to my lifesaver. Nice to meet you.”

Go Eun-sil, who greeted Yoon Yi-seol, disappeared towards the temporary tent. Jeong-woo, seeing Yoon Yi-seol now completely silent, quietly said.

“You can let go of my hand now.”

“I don’t want to.”

Yoon Yi-seol, leaning her head against Jeong-woo’s shoulder, opened her mouth petulantly.

“It’s weird. Why are you making my heart flutter like this today?”

“I’m just returning what I’ve received.”

“What did I do?”

“Various things.”

“Be specific. That way, you’ll get it back like this again.”

The cool sea breeze accelerated the soft energy flowing between them.

“Just stay as you are now. I’ll make the approach.”

“Gee.”

Yoon Yi-seol hugged Jeong-woo’s arm tightly.

Despite the lack of conversation, over 30 minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Jeong-woo thought that if there hadn’t been any interruptions, they could have sat like this for hours.

Ring.

His phone buzzed, and it was from ‘Go Eun-sil.’

-Hey, where are you? Can you come over here now? Your date partner too.

It was a quite urgent tone.

Jeong-woo entered the tent labeled “Examination Area” and found two men engrossed in a heated debate.

“How can you be so sure it’s the unvaccinated type?”

“As symptoms have appeared in even the cats, this must be a zoonotic disease.”

A man in his late fifties wearing a suit sighed towards a man in his early thirties wearing Level D protective gear.

“Hey, Kang-seok. I ended up on the blacklist of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs due to overreaction. You said the same thing back then.”

“Since we’ve taken the trouble to come here, let’s take action without burden…”

“Shh!”

The man in the suit looked at the man in protective gear as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Make sure to conduct the tests and let me know the results. I won’t accept anything without facts.”

“Then it’ll be delayed.”

“Then make sure you don’t delay the results!”

The man in the suit pointing towards the table with testing tools vanished. The man in protective gear sighed deeply and then saw Jeong-woo and Yoon Yi-seol entering.

“Who are you? Except for authorized personnel, no one is allowed in here.”

Before Jeong-woo could answer, Go Eun-sil, who approached from behind, said.

“Senior. I called him. He’s one of the cat owners.”

“Oh, is that so? Um, well… don’t take it to heart too much.”

The man in protective gear clicked his tongue and disappeared inside.

Sensing an uneasy atmosphere, Jeong-woo asked Go Eun-sil.

“Why is he like that?”

“One of the cats showed symptoms of hemorrhagic sepsis. If this continues, the cats can’t leave the quarantine zone until the situation is resolved.”

Yoon Yi-seol, surprised by this news, asked.

“Is Kiki okay?”

“No symptoms have appeared yet.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s in the clinic. We put her in our sterilized room, so you don’t have to worry about the risk of additional infection.”

In the clean room of the analysis lab, Jeong-woo saw people busy with examination work.

“Eun-sil. Are they searching for the virus genetic information from the blood collected from the cat?”

“Oh? Um, yes. The senior I just saw is a PCR specialist.”

“With just that equipment, it’ll take several hours for genome sequencing alone.”

“Really? I’m not familiar with that field.”

As someone who had dealt with the latest devices in KG Chemistry’s lab, Jeong-woo predicted that it would take at least 12 hours to accurately identify the genetic information of the target virus.

‘…Looks like the date is off.’

Despite trying to create a good atmosphere, something came out of the blue. Jeong-woo, reaching the conclusion that this couldn’t go on, asked Go Eun-sil.

“Eun-sil. Can I observe the analysis work in the lab for a moment?”

“You?”

“I think I might know what virus it is.”

“How?”

Unable to simply say he knew by just looking, Jeong-woo pondered and then answered.

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m currently developing personalized gene therapy at the biomedical center.”

“Weren’t you making fire extinguishing agents?”

“I do everything back and forth. The company is a bit big. It might sound boastful, but I’m quite competent.”

As it didn’t seem like a lie, Go Eun-sil nodded.

“Then put on protective gear and go in. I’m just assisting anyway, so I won’t be much help.”

After getting permission, Jeong-woo looked at Yoon Yi-seol.

“Go to Kiki. Don’t worry too much.”

“Got it.”

Yoo Kang-seok sat in front of his laptop, searching through the virus database. Occasionally nodding his head while sighing deeply, he was approached by an employee from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

“Do you know what it is?”

“With symptoms alone, the scope is too broad. We’ll need to analyze the information from the PCR results to get a sense of it.”

“It shouldn’t be a big deal.”

Yoo Kang-seok felt the response “It’s already a big deal” rising up to his throat, but he held it back. Park Chung-sik, the manager, was watching from behind with a stern look.

“Mr. Park. If this is a new strain, it’ll be too late just to wait for the results.”

“And if it’s not?”

“Then it’ll be another climb up the blacklist.”

As Manager Park glared at him, Yoo Kang-seok coughed awkwardly and turned his head to the monitor.

Ding.

A text message came to his phone placed next to the laptop. Seeing Go Eun-sil’s name, he hurriedly checked it.

[Senior. The reinforcements have arrived. Make good use of them.]

“Huh? What does this mean?”

“…Excuse me. Are you the investigator who handles PCR?”

Yoo Kang-seok turned his head abruptly at the sudden call. And there he found a young man he had seen at the entrance earlier.

“How did you get here?”

“I have detailed information about the cat symptoms. I came in with permission from veterinary Go Eun-sil.”

“Eun-sil? Are you the reinforcement?”

“Uh… Am I?”

Yoo Kang-seok’s eyes urged him to say something to Jeong-woo.

Jeong-woo glanced towards the freezer where reagents and specimens were kept. He found the container holding the blood extracted from the cat with sepsis and examined its contents with molecular vision.

Among the numerous protein complexes floating in the expanded world, there was a specific bacteria tormenting the cat’s body.

“It seems to be caused by dermolytic protein toxins or pathogenic factors due to internal toxins.”

“Pardon?”

Seeing Yoo Kang-seok’s eyes widen at the specific information pointing to a certain condition, Jeong-woo pointed at the monitor where genetic analysis results were sporadically appearing.

“I recognize that DNA structure because I’m familiar with it.”

“That can’t be true…”

It was as if he had identified what a book was about just by reading one sentence. Yoo Kang-seok’s expression turned incredulous. Moreover, that book hadn’t been released to the world?

“If you’re doubtful, can I write out the structural formula in advance?”

The proposal from the other party was so absurd and unreasonable that Yoo Kang-seok accepted it on the spot.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

Jeong-woo approached quickly and tapped on the laptop keyboard as he spoke.

“The part currently being analyzed is just a regular nucleotide sequence, and in about 3 minutes? Some of the virus parts I’ve written will come out then.”

“You predict the sequence of the analysis equipment?”

“Because I’m familiar with it. Well, this should be enough.”

Yoo Kang-seok turned his gaze to the laptop monitor.

A screen filled with a continuous array of four nucleic acids ‘A, G, C, T’. It was unreasonable to say that this was accurate, but the arrangement of the bases seemed very neat to be just scribbled.

Beep, beep.

Yoo Kang-seok turned his head to the analysis screen inside the PCR equipment and had to blink once. A unique nucleotide sequence appeared three minutes later. It was exactly as Jeong-woo had written.

“W-what do you do?”

“I’m a researcher at KG Chemistry. My name is Han Jeong-woo.”

Yoo Kang-seok double-checked the PCR analysis results and Jeong-woo’s DNA structure and marveled.

“It can’t be true… This is…”

It was beyond the level where one could write exactly the same even knowing what the virus was.

“Mr. Han Jeong-woo. Do you really know what this is and wrote it down?”

“Uh… The exact name is blurry, but I remember the DNA structure vividly. I work in pharmaceuticals, so I’ve seen it here and there.”

“You make vaccines. No wonder…”

Jeong-woo didn’t mention that the actual research would start next week.

After gaining trust, the work progressed in no time.

Later, Yoo Kang-seok who was concentrating on the monitor, spoke.

“I found it. It seems to be a variant of Pasteurella multocida that was recently epidemic in China. Nothing unusual.”

“Can it be treated?”

“Usually, with antibiotics is possible. Since it’s a pathogen that causes opportunistic infections, it doesn’t affect healthy individuals. In this case, healthy animals should be able to receive a safe diagnosis.”

“That’s a relief.”

Yoo Kang-seok, who finished organizing the latest information on the pathogen, looked at Jeong-woo again with a face full of admiration.

“Thanks to you, this process has been shortened by at least half a day. How do you memorize and carry around information about a pathogen reported only in China?”

“I just happened to…”

Jeong-woo smiled slightly and avoided the question.

Yoo Kang-seok glanced at Jeong-woo with curious eyes, then looked at the quarantine officer and Mr Park, who were chatting.

“Mr Park would be delighted if it’s not a new dangerous pathogen.”

“Ah, Investigator. But…”

Jeong-woo pointed out a slight difference between the nucleotide sequence in the genetic information bank window and the one he had written.

“This part is slightly different from the original one, isn’t it?”

“Uh, Mr. Jeong-woo, you wrote it based on your memory, so it’s natural to have some errors, right? I took that into account and searched.”

“Errors?”

Since it was copied directly from the cat’s blood, there couldn’t be any mistakes.

Jeong-woo asked just in case.

“If we’re talking hypotheticals, what kind of ripple effects would occur if such mutations occur in the pathogen?”

“Just by analyzing, there’s a possibility that mutations have occurred in the cell receptor sites. Predictions beyond that are more difficult. If this mutagenic factor evolves by crossing species, it could increase infectivity or even disrupt the immune system of healthy individuals.”

“In that case…”

“It would become a novel virus without a vaccine.”

Jeong-woo internally swallowed a groan at Yoo Kang-seok’s response.

Although he couldn’t be sure without seeing the original infecting agent of the initial outbreak, he felt it wouldn’t be something to take lightly.

Jeong-woo pondered how to convey the fact that this was an accurate genetic analysis without any errors. Then he saw Go Eun-sil running towards the clean room from outside.

“Senior! The second outbreak cat has appeared!”

“Now?”

Yoo Kang-seok immediately rushed out.

Instead of following Yoo Kang-seok, Go Eun-sil turned her head towards Jeong-woo. Surprised by the anxiety in her eyes, Jeong-woo asked.

“Is it Kiki?”

“No, but the chances have increased since two cats have been infected. It’s evidence of infectivity.”

“Where are the blood samples collected for antigen testing?”

“In the examination room.”

Jeong-woo decided he needed to confirm visually first and stepped outside.

「7 PM」 – Crisis Level “Alert”

Hurrying into the makeshift clinic tent after a month-long absence, Jeong-woo spotted Yoon Yi-seol standing with a worried expression and quickly approached her.

“Yi-seol.”

Yoon Yi-seol pointed towards a kitten on the examination table, meowing weakly.

“It seems very sick. The vet says it has a high fever.”

Jeong-woo turned his gaze towards the blood vials laid out for serum analysis. Numbered vials, each carefully labeled. As he checked each one, he noticed that vial number 7 contained a significant amount of the virus.

“Yi-seol, what’s Kiki’s number?”

“It’s number 19. Why?”

“No reason.”

Jeong-woo took a deep breath.

Number 7 was the kitten currently being treated on the examination table, and Yoo Kang-seok had just taken it away to the analysis room.

‘Please, let it not be there.’

Taking a deep breath, Jeong-woo focused his gaze on vial number 19, Kiki’s blood. The top part was clean, but the bottom part showed some signs of mutagenic factors.

‘Kiki…’