Chemistry

2. A Day in the Life of a Chemical Company Intern(5)

The place where Jeong-woo arrived with Song Boyeong was much larger than the cramped office they had just left. The official nameplate read “Research Room 1”.

‘Nice. The personal space is wide. Do we get to use a place like this when we become official researchers?’

Song Boyeong went in and came out with a file from the desk piled with documents.

“It’s the weekly meeting materials. Make 70 copies and put them up in the research hall. And….”

Song Boyeong turned her head and shouted into the office.

“Senior Seung-ju! What’s the experiment we’re doing today?”

“The new project at the Metal Center.”

“Right.”

Song Boyeong snapped her fingers.

“Get the connection pipe and ten beakers from the tool room. Bring the electrolysis device and low-pressure gas discharge device from the machine room. Get magnesium and calcium samples for catalysts from the warehouse.”

Jeong-woo looked at Song Boyeong with the expression of a newly enlisted soldier who had misunderstood the instructions.

“Hurry up. There’s only 30 minutes left until the meeting.”

“Thirty minutes?”

Jeong-woo couldn’t even tell if everything could be done in that time, but Song Boyeong urged him to move.

“I have additional data to organize. Good luck, Mr. Parachute.”

Thud.

The door of the comfortable-looking Research Room 1 closed.

“Was this why they brought me here?” Jeong-woo thought, overwhelmed by Song Boyeong’s instructions. He didn’t even know where the copier was, and the list of tools he had to prepare was already blurry.

Asking again would hurt his pride, so Jeong-woo started wandering around the office area, searching for the copier.

“This is the senior researcher’s private room. This is the audio-visual room, this is the equipment room…”

Jeong-woo found two copiers near the equipment room and stood in front of them. He removed the clip from the document Song Boyeong gave him and put the first page into the copier.

He typed in [70] and pressed the copy button, and the document came out quickly. Seeing the paper stack up silently gave him a sense of relief.

“Of course, the youngest member’s work is just errands.”

Jeong-woo thought as he looked at the meeting material for a while. The weekly meeting on Monday morning seemed to be a place where researchers evaluated the progress of projects that had been carried out in the laboratory over the past week and discussed their opinions.

Jeong-woo wasn’t completely ignorant of how the research institute worked, so he felt he could adapt quickly.

He put the next page in the copier and looked at the detailed information.

9:25 am.

Jeong-woo, who had wandered around the compound warehouse on the outskirts of the research center, finally found the sample room and took the catalysts needed for the preliminary experiment in the icebox and came out.

“Here it is.”

Turning his head at the familiar and melodious voice, it was indeed Song Boyeong.

“Where should we open it?”

Looking through the samples in the icebox as if inspecting them, Song Boyeong looked at Jeong-woo with surprise.

“You’ve got everything properly. You’re adapting quite quickly, Mr. Parachute.”

“Thanks to the senior’s quick and accurate instructions.”

Jeong-woo emphasized the words ‘quick and accurate’ and began to lift the sturdy icebox while grunting.

Watching him, who seemed quite tired, without any particular complaints, Song Boyeong looked at him as if she was looking at him again and soon shook her head. “You should look at the weaknesses, not the strengths,” she muttered quietly, scolding herself.

Jeong-woo, who had been walking ahead, smiled inwardly but didn’t express it.

“Phew.”

Jeong-woo put down the icebox in the corridor near the meeting room to catch his breath for a moment. Then he asked Song Boyeong, who was following him closely.

“Senior, are you going to keep talking about that parachute incident?”

“Don’t want to hear it?”

“Not necessarily, but I thought we could talk about it from a different perspective. I’ve been hired, and I haven’t caused any harm to you either.”

“Did you cause any harm?”

Song Boyeong, who had confidently raised her head, glanced at the sweat on Jeong-woo’s forehead, then stepped back as if she felt sorry.

“Well, since there will be things to do in the future, I guess it’s like that. Dr. Cheon is famous for not working with many people. Since you are his disciple, it puts me at a disadvantage.”

“Anyway, he’s not in the research center right now.”

It was a valid point, so Song Boyeong couldn’t make any more excuses and bit her lip.

Carrying the icebox again, Jeong-woo entered the conference room located in the central part of the Basic Material Center.

One of the walls was made of clear glass, allowing a panoramic view of the laboratory. Equipped with a video conferencing system with regional research institutes, the room also served as the central command center of the central research institute.

Song Boyeong, who entered the room, looked around the conference room.

“You’ve prepared everything…”

The neatly stacked conference materials and the prepared experimental tools were immaculate, demonstrating exceptional efficiency compared to the newbies who struggled with similar tasks three months ago.

Jeong-woo placed the samples on the table and turned to Song Boyeong.

“Senior.”

Startled by the sudden call, Song Boyeong looked at Jeong-woo.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s almost nine-thirty, and people aren’t showing up. Should we call them separately?”

“Oh, about that.”

Sensing Jeong-woo’s confusion, Song Boyeong suddenly pulled out a can of coffee from her coat.

“Actually, the meeting is at 10 a.m.”

“What?”

“I passed on all the preparations for the weekly meeting to the youngest. If they couldn’t do it properly, I wanted to show my seniority, but anyway, I’m sorry. Drink this and take a break for the remaining thirty minutes.”

Upon seeing Jeong-woo’s astonished expression, Song Boyeong shook the can of coffee in her hand, with a playful smile on her face

“I had no idea you’d be ready so quickly.”

Since he could sense that she was trying to tease him, Jeong-woo sighed briefly and accepted the coffee can.

After confirming the experimental readiness again, Song Boyeong stuck out her tongue and said,

“I have to admit, you’re really good. You must have had some experience working in a research institute, right?”

“I just guessed.”

“Just guessing couldn’t have gotten you this far. Where did you meet Professor Cheon? Heidelberg Research Institute? Daejeon Chemical Research?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Really, you can’t even say this?”

Avoiding her gaze, Jeong-woo said,

“Thank you for the coffee. I’ll be going now.”

“The meeting is about to start, where are you going? Your seat is over there.”

Pointing to a makeshift chair in the corner of the conference room, Song Boyeong urged him to sit down.

“Don’t you have anything to do, senior?”

“No, I don’t. You’ve done everything, Mr. Parachute.”

“I see.”

Jeong-woo was considering how to escape from answering more questions about Cheon Seung-guk when he saw Song Boyeong’s twinkling eyes.

Her positive energy seemed contagious, as it felt like just being next to her would make anyone feel more motivated and upbeat.

“Come to think of it….” She felt jealous, but at the same time, she acknowledged that he had natural talent simply because he was trained by Cheon Seung-guk. Just how much does she trust him?

Just then, the door to the conference room opened, and a group of people entered. Jeong-woo turned his head and saw six newly hired research fellows led by Bae Ki-tae.

“I feel awkward seeing them now.”

Feeling a bit concerned because she had talked about them behind their backs in the break room, Song Boyeong stood up, but she acted like she knew nothing when they entered.

“Hello, juniors!”

All the new research fellows bowed to Song Boyeong as they entered.

“Are you preparing for the meeting? Can we help you with anything?”

When Bae Ki-tae approached them, Song Boyeong shook her head and said that they should take a break because Mr. Parachute had finished everything.

When Song Boyeong blatantly referred to him as “Mr. Parachute” and pointed to Jeong-woo, Bae Ki-tae’s expression changed.

“Uh… is he Han Jeong-woo?”

Jeong-woo met Bae Ki-tae’s gaze, who was looking at him with a face that could either be laughing or crying. Judging by the unnatural reaction, he seemed to be unsure if Jeong-woo was the son of the CEO or not.

Since it was his first official meeting, Jeong-woo first greeted the other seniors.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Han Jeong-woo, and I will be working as an intern at the Central Research Institute starting today.”

Jeong-woo was approached by a curly-haired, plump man named Cho Sung-hwan, who had his name written on his employee ID.

“I heard from Ki-tae that your major is management… Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Did you apply for the policy planning team or the general affairs and welfare team?”

Not knowing what those departments did, Jeong-woo shook his head.

“Ah! How about the HR team?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“For now, my goal is to become a full-time researcher.”

Upon hearing Jeong-woo’s response, both Cho Sung-hwan and the other new research fellows were left speechless.

Jeong-woo couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. He couldn’t even offer much help with his newfound knowledge of chemistry due to the pills he had taken.

He decided it was better to be bold here, so he expressed his aspirations as a male protagonist of a new employee that he had seen in a drama.

“I want to be a researcher who can help the Central Research Institute’s project. Please take care of me, seniors.”

“Sure, do your best.”

Cho Sung-hwan awkwardly patted Jeong-woo’s shoulder with a smile.

Song Boyeong, who had been listening quietly, raised her head in surprise.

“What? You’re a parachute major in management? How is that possible?”

She started firing questions without hesitation, always curious since their first meeting.

“A double major? Did you meet Professor Cheon through a research project?”

Jeong-woo scratched his chin.

The meeting still had 27 minutes left. He had to endure in silence. After that, he avoided Song Boyeong’s gaze as much as possible and quietly sipped on a can of coffee.

Executive-level researchers sat around a U-shaped table.

“The weekly meeting begins.”

The senior, supervisor, and general researchers sitting on makeshift chairs began to review the meeting materials that Jeong-woo had copied.