Lost and Found

41: Toxic

Lay was working double time. He only had until noon to finalize the list of medicaments that would be proceeding to the third trial. Why only noon, you ask? Work will be suspended at noon to make way for the preparations for His Excellence Kim Junmyeon's birthday party.

As Lay was busy triple-checking that the list was correct, he received an email from the Bureau of Pharmacology-affiliated laboratory. It was the first trial result of Bunno's formulation. Lay printed the results as he always preferred printed over digital for his documents. Same with the other possible new medicaments, Lay thoroughly reviewed the results page by page until he finally reached a conclusion.

"Bunno-ssi, your drug failed the first trial," Lay announced so Bunno could hear from the other side of the office.

"What? Why would it fail?" Bunno sounded irritated

"According to results, it has been found out that your drug uses a previously unknown chemical substance," Lay read the results.

"Of course it's unknown. I discovered the substance 'holmesycin' that is used in my formulation," Bunno was walking toward Lay in forceful steps. "Don't tell me it failed because it was unknown?"

"It's not because it was an unknown substance," Lay clarified. "But because 'holmesycin', as you named it, turns out to be an extremely weaker, albeit still lethal, variation of the substance, 'APTX 4869'."

"And what's wrong with that?" Bunno was clearly getting angry.

"APTX 4869 was an accidental creation by a friend of Representative KudoShinichi from Teitan City. When Honorable Kudo Shinichi joined the ArcanusAlliance years back, APTX 4869 also started showing up on our planet," Ten explained. "According to itscreator, APTX 4869 was found to be a lethal poison. Thus, it has been banned inTeitan City. Following their recommendation, Exoplanet and the rest of themembers of the Arcanus Alliance banned the said substance and were given thenecessary data about it."

"And you'll reject my drug just because of that reason?" Bunno's rage was seeping through her words. "It doesn't matter, does it? As long as it performs what it is intended to do. All medicaments have some form of side effects."

"However, APTX 4869, and by extension holmesycin, have no approved therapeutic or medicinal attributes so, unfortunately, it would not be approved according to our standards," Lay concluded.

"OH MY GOODNESS! Are you serious, right now?" Bunno flared up in anger. "Are you seriously wasting almost a decade of my research just because of its possible harmful side effects?"

"According to the Ex'Acts and protocols in our planet, we would have to reject your drug, confiscate everything that you currently have, and order you to stop manufacturing your 'holmesycin'," Kun stepped in. "We will give you twenty-four hours to prepare everything for confiscation."

"I can't believe it! Yixing-ssi, you ruined my chances of getting rich!" Bunno furiously took her bag and walked out of the office. "See you all later at the party."

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Meanwhile, Kris managed to sneak Tao out of the office and into the mall. Tao, on the other hand, let the other be. After all, notwithstanding the recovered memories, he was still grateful to Kris for gifting him the latest laptop suited for his occupation.

"Uhm, Kris? Not that I mind being with you, but what are we doing here?" Tao's words were muffled by his face mask.

"It's Suho's birthday so we're here to buy outfits to wear for later," Kris replied.