Chemistry

9. A month in the life of a chemical company team leader(10)

“Starting from the second batch of samples, we’re changing the synthesis method. A combination that can be created all the way to the final stage in one go.”

Jeong-woo’s words left Bae Ki-tae and Cho Seong-hwan with puzzled expressions. Given that even incrementally adding and mixing them didn’t easily raise the match rate, it was quite a statement to suggest doing it all at once.

“Is that even possible?”

In response to Cho Seong-hwan’s question, Jeong-woo chuckled and turned the laptop screen towards them. The aroma molecule analysis table for the second batch research samples – asian lizard’s tail and plum blossoms – appeared.

“We’re looking at it holistically. A fragrance is, after all, a collective of molecules that generate it. Instead of cutting and connecting them one by one, it’s a three-dimensional process.”

On the laptop screen appeared the work schedule Jeong-woo had been working on all day on Friday.

Removing heliotropin from lilac, eugenol and cinnamaldehyde from carnation, and benzyl acetate from jasmine.

A process of eliminating the dominant fragrances from the existing flower aroma molecules and mixing the remaining ones to find the desired molecular composition.

Bae Ki-tae and Cho Seong-hwan stared at the monitor for a long time.

This wasn’t about attaching threads one by one to make a long string; instead, it was a proposal that, by cutting bundles of threads, mixing them together, and shaking them, they would all be connected, a logic on par with that idea.

Team leader Han Jeong-woo was saying that it was possible.

“Where and how to cut and blend. I will handle the boundary analysis of the fragrance molecules. Your role will be to assist in the extraction work from the analyzed base fragrances. Since we’re working on both asian lizard’s tail and plum blossoms, please take care of them one by one. We’ll start with magnolia base for asian lizard’s tail…”

As he explained the step-by-step process, the two listeners couldn’t help but have their mouths gradually fall open.

Strangely, while listening to Jeong-woo’s explanation, it seemed that even if they roughly held and mixed the clusters in their hands, they were convinced it would still connect properly.

“Te-Team leader, this molecule recombination technique. You’ll patent it, right?”

Bae Ki-tae asked absentmindedly.

“If it’s necessary”

Jeong-woo replied and immediately immersed himself in the analysis work.

The two people who had gathered to follow his instructions were left dumbfounded.

“How did the direction of the core technology change so drastically within just two weeks of starting the project? It’s giving me chills.”

“We’re part of that change.”

“Come to think of it, that’s even more chilling. If Seong-hwan hadn’t bragged about it, I wouldn’t have even thought of coming here. When will we get to witness something like this again?”

Jeong-woo gazed at the two vials containing the fragrance oil extracted from natural ingredients.

The fact they had discovered through the vibrational analysis of the molecular boundary layers last week.

In the time it takes to lift a ball into the air in a forest made of trees, it’s much more efficient to scatter all the seeds and eliminate the unnecessary parts.

The goal was to complete these two samples within this week. That means the work speed with this technology has doubled.

As the evening approached, Jeong-woo glanced at the clock. It was ten minutes to 5.

“Ki-tae, Seong-hwan.”

“Yes!”

Both of them, who were peering through electron microscopes, simultaneously looked up.

“Go home.”

And they both hesitated at the same time.

“I, quitting at regular hours? Audrey’s CEO is coming on Friday. We don’t have time in our team.”

“Currently, there’s only a 24.78% match on this side.”

Jeong-woo stood up from his seat, assuring them it was okay.

“As planned. If we work the same way for another 4 days, it should reach around 99.1%. Set aside a day for error analysis. By Friday, it should be completed.”

Despite Jeong-woo’s confident attitude, the two of them remained uncertain.

“If we don’t expand the team, we might need around 4 more weeks like this, but there’s no helping it.”

Cho Seong-hwan’s eyes widened.

“You’re thinking of completing the project in 4 weeks?”

“Why? Is that a bit late?”

Bae Ki-tae, who was sipping his drink, choked. After clearing his throat with difficulty, he looked at Jeong-woo and said.

“I heard from a senior that projects like this usually take more than six months.”

“Six months? Then, if it takes that long, the training period set will be over, and I’ll have to go back the basics. That’s just not possible. How can I continue with work life alongside Director Jang and the Center Manager?”

The plan of Jeong-woo was to wrap up with at least 2 per week, as there were 8 left, aiming to finish within 4 weeks.

Seeing the two individuals who still showed no sign of leaving work, Jeong-woo snapped his fingers.

“Oh, I see. You’re unable to leave work because the team leader isn’t leaving, right? You don’t have to be so formal with your superiors like that. I have a commitment, so I’ll leave. You’ve done a good job with today’s tasks. Please make sure to leave at the regular time.”

Jeong-woo, after putting his coat in the fragrance room cabinet, shook hands and left.

The two remaining individuals looked at each other with puzzled expressions. As if muttering to himself, Cho Seong-hwan said.

“I want to continue with this project. Compared to being under Dr. Moon, this place is like heaven. There’s so much to learn.”

“Me too. It’s weird, but I want to go home quickly. It’s even weirder when research is going so well.”

“When things are this odd, how about some chicken and beer? What do you say?”

“Sounds good.”

Jeong-woo opened the door to the cafe in front of the company and looked around inside. In the corner, a colleague from the company, Shin Ki-joon, raised his hand towards Jeong-woo.

“Over here!”

Spotting Ki-joon, Jeong-woo exchanged a nod and walked over.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“No, I just arrived.”

Once Jeong-woo sat down, Ki-joon placed a document titled ‘Streaming and Video Transmission Rights Agreement’ on the table.

“Your channel name, as we discussed before, is officially set as ‘Chemistry.’”

Jeong-woo skimmed through the document and asked, “Will many people really watch this?”

With a playful smile, Ki-joon pulled out a tablet and handed it over.

“See for yourself.”

Jeong-woo took the tablet and checked the video channel.

《Channel Chemistry》 – [Subscribers 20,034]

◇ Line 1 Magician – [Views 60,312]

◇ White Magician (feat. Firework Teacher) – [Views 530,542]

◇ Snow Removal Captain in Seongbuk-dong – [Views 50,385]

◇ Snow Removal Expedition – [Views 72,329]

“What, what’s the ‘Snow Removal Expedition’?”

“Someone recorded it and uploaded it. We got in touch and moved it here. I wonder when did you even go to that region. It’s the same for the Line 1 Magician, it had its time in the spotlight, but the impact isn’t all that substantial.”

Ki-joon pointed to the video that garnered 530,000 views among the four.

“People who found Yoon Yi-seol’s stage video and came through that link are clicking the subscribe button a lot. Even though there’s no regular update schedule yet, and there are only four videos, already 20,000 people are subscribed. The potential is there.”

“How many subscribers do successful people usually have?”

“Between one to two million.”

Jeong-woo’s mouth hung open at this answer. A channel that had a million people tuning in for everyday content, he couldn’t grasp it at all.

“This Lunar New Year, when the ‘Delicious Feast’ special episode in which you participated airs and that video is updated, your subscribers will increase again. But before that, I suggest doing a live stream once.”

“A live stream?”

“For the channel’s opening celebration.”

“Recently, I’m so busy with projects that I don’t really have anything worth broadcasting. What I’m doing now is quite static. Fragrances aren’t something the camera can capture.”

“If you come up with content you’d like to try, please let me know anytime. Internet broadcasting is flexible. You can broadcast from anywhere with just a phone.”

After finishing the signing, Jeong-woo divided the contract with Ki-joon and then asked.

“How much money do those million viewers make?”

“I heard that some bought an apartment in Gangnam. They’re also considering whether to establish a corporation or operate as a sole proprietor due to tax concerns.”

“Wow…”

As he listened, Jeong-woo started feeling quite ambitious.

As Jeong-woo was organizing the contract and putting it into his bag, he noticed Song Boyeong passing by the window with her hands full of bags.

“I’ll be up first. Please take care of things from now on.”

“I’m confident we’ll have a good relationship.”

After shaking hands with Ki-joon, Jeong-woo stepped outside and called out to Boyeong who was ahead of him.

“Senior! Are we going to have overtime from Monday?”

Boyeong, walking with a heavy load and making strained sounds, halted her steps at the sound of his voice. However, since she refused to meet his gaze, Jeong-woo judged that she might still be embarrassed about yesterday’s incident and approached quietly.

“Lunch boxes, huh? Why are you carrying all of this by yourself? Just because you’re the youngest on the project? Seriously, other seniors should help.”

Jeong-woo took the bundle that Boyeong held in one hand and moved closer.

“…In the morning.”

“What?”

“I met Chairman Wang Liming.”

Walking ahead, Boyeong spoke without meeting Jeong-woo’s eyes.

“Since Mi-hee never showed up and I was checking out alone, in the lobby, someone asked if you and I were a thing…”

Jeong-woo noticed Boyeong’s long, soft eyelashes trembling slightly.

“I can’t just say we had a one-night stand. They obviously know that Mi-hee and I are friends.”

“Well, I mean, you can just play it off casually. And it’s not like we’ll see those people again.”

“That’s why I casually said we were friends.”

Wondering why Song Boyeong acted that way, he sighed.

“So, they interpreted it as a male friend with whom I spent the night in a suite. I couldn’t express the subtlety of the tone.”

“What does it matter?”

Bang- Boyeong turned her head to look at Jeong-woo.

“Even thought he paid for the honeymoon package?”

“Yes?”

“A voucher for a penthouse stay that can be used at any Conrad Hotel chain around the world, plus a lounge event pass. Right in front of the Chairman of the Board.”

Jeong-woo’s mouth dropped open.

“Wow, Chairman Wang is really powerful.”

“It’s not just about marveling right now. A twenty-seven-year-old girl with a promising future has booked the honeymoon package with her name on it, usable at any Conrad Hotel branch around the world. It’s already spread like wildfire in the hotel. No, I mean, can you even imagine? Mi-hee kept asking what that was all about. Chairman Wang didn’t even listen but said it’s good and left. Because of that, I was late and won the evening delivery prize.”

Listening to Boyeong’s grumbling that sounded like she was talking to herself, it seemed like he understood why she was carrying the lunch boxes.

Seeing her flustered, Jeong-woo opened his mouth with an apologetic expression.

“You should contact him.”

“After showing up like that at night, how am I supposed to contact him? He needs to disappear from my sight for at least a week to be forgotten.”

“Hmm… is that the expertise of someone who often gets into embarrassing situations?”

“Are you being serious?”

Despite her puffy cheeks, within Boyeong’s round eyes that were fixed on Jeong-woo, embarrassment filled the gaze.

Because of that, the memory of the bath towel silhouette came back to Jeong-woo’s mind, causing him to tilt his head.

“Receive what’s due. Just clear up any confusion. They’re saying the Chairman of the Board himself took care of the mural at the Sky Lounge there? Compared to that, it’s not that significant… Oh, yeah, Mi-hee said to not bring it up.”

“Mi-hee? When did you hear about the mural story?”

“When you passed out, senior. You remember, when your friends were bothering you at night? No, why were you even studying there at that hour? Your injections were quite unique.”

Boyeong’s cheeks turned red. Jeong-woo pushed the revolving door at the entrance of the company and spoke.

“That honeymoon package. If you really find someone later, make good use of it. I don’t need it.”

Standing in front of the employee gate, Song Boyeong handed over the lunch box to Jeong-woo and asked as she passed by.

“Why? Don’t you have a girlfriend, Jeong-woo?”

“If I did, she would’ve been lying on that bed instead of you, senior.”

Jeong-woo shook his hand and spoke.

“I’m off work. Good luck with your overtime.”

Watching Jeong-woo move away, Song Boyeong placed the lunch bag in front of the elevator and took out her phone for a moment.

[Boyeong, do you want me to cancel it?]

A text from Seo Mi-hee, sent earlier in the morning. Song Boyeong replied.

[Just… leave it. Treat the Chairman of the Board nicely.]

Ding.

[That overbearing Chairman!]

A new message arrived immediately, startling Song Boyeong. She quickly put her phone in her pocket and chuckled to herself.

「Day 16」 – Fragrance Lab

Upon opening the door and entering, Jeong-woo was taken by surprise. The reason was that all six researchers from the Fragrance Center were lying sprawled across a table in one corner of the workspace.

Among them was Shin Ki-woo.

Jeong-woo pointed them out to Cho Seong-hwan, who had arrived earlier.

“Looks like they’re pulling an all-nighter?”

“Seems that way. They were like this when I came in too.”

Shin Ki-woo groaned as he lifted his upper body and rubbed his neck. While he was doing so, his eyes met with Jeong-woo’s gaze. Yawning, Shin Ki-woo stood up.

“We had an emergency, so we stayed up all night. Bongchan, Seokhan, wake up.”

As the group rose one by one, looking as if they had spent the night working feverishly, Shin Ki-woo approached Jeong-woo.

“I’ll take care of the GC analyzer quickly.”

“What’s the emergency? Is it because of the new P&Z product? DeZone Air?”

“Yes. They publicly disclosed all the ingredients there. We’re analyzing that and coming up with countermeasures.”

“They disclosed the ingredients?”

Shin Ki-woo continued with his explanation.

“Specific ingredients that are almost like trade secrets in products like these are kept as corporate secrets, but P&Z aims to give consumers an image of being able to use their products with peace of mind by openly disclosing each chemical ingredient. Along with its deodorizing performance, they’ve been coming out with marketing strategies that were unprecedented. That’s why the Fragrance Center has entered emergency mode as of yesterday.”

“P&Z holds 50%. The rest of the market is divided among domestic chemical companies. With this ‘Chaffrin’ product, we were aiming to solidify our position as the second largest, but we’re facing a crisis. If our market share drops even further after releasing our own product…”

Shin Ki-woo’s unfinished story was still understood by Jeong-woo as well. The conclusion was that the key personnel of the project would face consequences.

“Ah, our project still needs another four weeks. The atmosphere here is going to get even more tense. By the way, are these people the core developers?”

They were the top talents brought in from various departments. Truly exceptional individuals. Jeong-woo’s eyes glinted with a wicked idea.

Watching them start to clean up, Jeong-woo turned to Shin Ki-woo and asked, “When you disclose the ingredients, there’s a risk of others copying them. It might seem beneficial right now, but what if someone else uses the same ingredients and sells their products for a lower price in the future?”

“They must be confident in themselves, thinking that they won’t be able to replicate it as well as they can.”

“Do you think I could take a look at the disclosed ingredient list?”

Shin Ki-woo handed a document to Jeong-woo. As Jeong-woo quickly read through it, chemical information flitted through his mind.

‘DeZone Air uses citric acid as a pH regulator. Environmentally friendly, I suppose? The diffusing surfactant is modified polydimethylsiloxane? It’s more effective than the caster oil used in ‘Chaffrin’. Perhaps because it’s a foreign company, their synthetic level is…’

Looking at the traces of experiments on the table, Jeong-woo turned to Shin Ki-woo and said, “If I were to make something exactly like this right away, what approach could be taken?”

“I’m sure you could help quite a bit, but we don’t know the proportions at all. The most crucial ingredient ratios haven’t been disclosed.”

“The world of deodorizers has some commonalities.”

“Really?”

Jeong-woo smirked and shouted to the group busy cleaning up, “Hold on a moment!” He quickly put on gloves with both hands.

Thunk.

Bae Ki-tae, who had just arrived for work, rushed over as he saw Jeong-woo frantically working.

“Oops, sorry for being late.”

“Oh, Ki-tae, take a 20-minute break with Seong-hwan.”

“What are you working on right now?”

“Gathering talent… I mean, as a chemical specialist at KG, I’m helping out with foreign company P&Z’s takeover attempt.”

As Jeong-woo focused on the compounds on the table, the microcosm of DeZone Air’s deodorizing universe unfolded before his eyes.

KG Lifestyle Health SH Center Meeting Room.

A time for an emergency meeting with over 30 individuals involved in ‘Chaffrin’ development.

Cha Jin-seong looked at the words on the label of the sprayer placed on the central table and made an expression of disbelief.

“Is this DeZone Air? Did we plant a spy in P&Z or something?”

“Jung Yeon, Team Leader Jeong-woo created this.”

In response to Shin Ki-woo’s explanation, Cha Jin-seong let out a surprised laugh.

“Jeong-woo again?”

“We tested it among ourselves, and it seems like we’ve replicated it almost perfectly. The deodorizing performance has improved by about 30% compared to the original P&Z product. Just as they advertise.”

“What about in comparison to our own product?”

“Well…”

Shin Ki-woo let out a deep sigh and replied.

“The fragrance evaluation is comparable, but the deodorizing effect lags behind by about 10%.”

It was a despairing situation. Their ambitious new product was falling behind a competitor’s new product, without any preemptive advantage, and even lagging behind in marketing.

They needed a solution of any sort at this point.

Cha Jin-seong looked around at the Fragrance Center researchers and shouted.

“Summon Team Leader Han!”

“Yes? For what reason…”

“If they cooperate here, tell them that I’ll provide full support for the Audrey Project. I’ll guarantee it.”

Jeong-woo handed a memo with formulas to Bae Ki-tae.

“Rose geranium, you need to extract not just the flowers but also the leaves and stems for synthesis.”

“And the remaining after removing menthone and linalool?”

“Yeah, exactly. Do you understand the principle?”

“Not fully, but… taking out those two should result in a good combination with the fragrance molecules we cut from the black currant here, I think.”

“That’s the key. Great. We might be done by 4 o’clock today.”

Bae Ki-tae’s shoulders perked up at Jeong-woo’s praise. Next to them, Cho Seong-hwan concentrated on the experiment tubes as if he couldn’t afford to lose focus.

And then, it happened.

Thud.

The door opened, and a Fragrance Center researcher hurriedly entered.

“Team Leader Han Jeong-woo!”

Jeong-woo turned his head. The researcher spoke urgently.

“Currently, there’s a ‘Chaffrin’ team meeting going on, and the director asked if Team Leader Han could attend.”

“Me?”

“If you could cooperate on the ‘Chaffrin’ development issue, after that, there would be full support for Team Leader Han’s project…”

“I should go!”

A bright smile formed on Jeong-woo’s lips as he listened.