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CH29 | DI
🕑 Added 2025-02-23 04:02:29 +0000 UTCThe guy who asked the question was a fellow new hire.
‘His name was Nelson, right?’
For reference, this is the first time we’re actually talking.
I only know his name because he sits next to me.
“You have a girlfriend, don’t you?”
At Dobby’s question, Nelson overreacted, shooting lasers with his intense gaze.
“I got dumped.”
“Oh….”
“In the end, I couldn’t even make it past the seven-week mark.”
The atmosphere became a bit somber.
Every analyst at Goldman inevitably goes through a breakup within seven weeks.
We’re Excel slaves, after all.
Where would a slave find time to date?
Every analyst is confined within the glass prison known as Goldman from early morning until 3 a.m.
Sure, there are days when we leave work early, but there are countless times we’re called back in over a single email from an MD.
Men or women, there aren’t many people willing to put up with that.
Nelson says he received an ultimatum after doing just that.
“Since I didn’t have any Monday deadlines, I thought this time I’d finally be in the clear. But then, on Sunday morning, they told me to update the proposal… Thought I’d be done by five, but by the time it was all wrapped up, it was ten. I got a curt text saying it was over, and she wouldn’t even take my calls…”
“Ugh, just shake it off. We all go through it, right?”
Nelson accepted Dobby’s advice readily, letting go of his sadness in just two seconds and shifting his gaze to me.
“So, what’s the deal between you and Rachel?”
This is a question I’ve been getting a lot lately.
“What deal? She’s my closest friend among the new hires.”
“Really? No ulterior motives?”
‘Ulterior motives…?’
She’s beautiful, kind-hearted, from a good family, and even wealthy.
If I wasn’t on a countdown, I’d probably bow down and worship her.
But, for now, I can’t.
What I need isn’t a romantic partner but a princess who can string together rich clients like dried fish.
‘No good would come from entangling with her like that.
Romantic feelings are among the most volatile emotions.
But even more unpredictable than that are money and the market. When those two intersect, it’s a disaster.
So, I have to keep a strict boundary. Separating money and personal matters is more important than separating work and personal matters.’
“So, can I go after her, then?”
Is this guy nuts?
There’s no fool who looks kindly on the idea of a platonic friendship between a man and a woman.
The moment Rachel starts dating, that guy would tell her to keep her distance from me, creating a gap between us.
Therefore, our princess is under a dating ban for at least two years.
“As long as I’m breathing through both nostrils, it’s a no.”
When I answered firmly, Nelson, who had been smiling amiably, hardened his expression.
He let out a dry laugh and shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, actually, I don’t need your permission. I’m free to make my move.”
Seems he’s taken me lightly.
I can’t just let this slide.
“Freedom, huh…”
I immediately stood up and walked over to Nelson.
I stopped uncomfortably close, placing my hand on his shoulder.
Times like these are when being tall comes in handy; it’s easy to create a sense of intimidation when there’s a height difference.
“Think about it. If you don’t need my permission, then why did you bother asking me?”
“For courtesy’s sake…”
“Since when did we start showing courtesy?”
This guy instinctively asked for my permission but doesn’t seem to understand why.
Well, I’ll make it clear for him.
I gripped Nelson’s shoulder firmly and stretched my mouth into a wide grin—a Joker smile for the occasion.
“Just as you have the freedom to pursue Rachel, I have the freedom to interfere. If you try anything, I also have the freedom to slander you as a complete scumbag.”
“Why would you do something like that…?”
“Because it’s my freedom.”
“…”
“If you’re curious about whether I’d go that far, feel free to test it. I’m the type to do what I say.”
Getting into a tug-of-war over Rachel between two guys would be exhausting.
It’d be better to have one guard dog with his eyes spinning.
Smack!
Nelson slapped my hand off and returned to his seat with an annoyed expression.
‘Did he get the message?’
Apparently not.
Just before leaving work, when Rachel stopped by, he made this suggestion.
“We’re going for a drink now. How about joining us, Rachel?”
“No, I…”
“I was planning to meet some Wall Street seniors. Networking is essential in this industry, right? You get to learn a lot from different sources.”
He’s not wrong.
The issue is that Rachel seemed overly tempted by the idea.
“Then maybe I’ll drop by for a bit?”
I could tell just by her eyes.
She was probably thinking, ‘Potential clients for our gallery!’
‘When the bait works too well, it’s a problem,’ I thought.
Though there’s much to be done, I can’t let our princess attract any unwanted bugs.
“Sounds fun; I’ll tag along too.”
“This is my friend Daniel Oliver, an analyst at Bridgewater, and over here is Carl Bailey from Renaissance Capital.”
Two guys who claimed to be Nelson’s friends.
Both were standing with their shoulders squared.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen this.’
I felt like I’d returned to my past for the first time in ages.
Wall Street is a world of strict hierarchies.
Just as there are ranks within Goldman’s front office, middle office, and back office, there’s a hierarchy outside of Goldman as well.
There’s only one standard for determining the external ranks:
Assets Under Management (AUM).
At the time of my death, Bridgewater’s AUM was around $124 billion.
Renaissance Capital’s was about $106 billion.
Since they’re both among the largest funds in the U.S., as soon as their company names came up, they straightened up.
This situation is called “my dick is bigger than yours” in the official language of Wall Street.
In this world, it’s the rule that anyone from Goldman becomes a nobody in front of those two big shots.
“So, you’re that Sean guy?”
“I heard from Nelson that you have some kind of algorithm.”
While his two heavyweight friends were blocking me, Nelson slipped into the seat next to Rachel.
‘As expected, he’s completely ignoring my warning.’
That’s just how it is. No one takes you seriously, even when you speak earnestly.
Once everyone was seated, I spoke up first.
“I’ll cover Nelson’s first drink.”
“Why?”
“He mentioned he got dumped today. It’s only right to buy him a drink to cheer him up—we’re in the same department, after all.”
I casually dropped the fact that he was recently dumped and might be looking for a rebound with anyone, which made Nelson’s face stiffen a bit.
‘Think it’s low?’
Doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care much for face or rules—I’m not letting anyone mess with what’s mine.
“Did you send flowers? You’ve got that 24-hour flower delivery service on speed dial, don’t you?”
Nelson’s face stiffened even more.
Since he sits nearby, I’ve overheard plenty of his pompous talk. Recently, he’d said something like this:
“What’s there to change? Just send some flowers, and it’s done. Sincerely apologizing to a woman is a waste of time. Don’t you know you’re better off closing another deal in that time?”
The reason he got dumped isn’t just his work hours.
He has plenty of so-called words of wisdom that would make Rachel recoil if she knew.
I was about to start spilling them one by one when I noticed his face turning pale.
Just as I was about to show him the true terror of a mad dog, someone interrupted the flow.
“So, Rachel, what’s your ideal type?”
It was an unnamed colleague sitting to Rachel’s left, obliviously breaking the tension.
“My ideal type? Not really…”
“But there must be a type you like.”
‘I mean, aren’t we a bit old to be talking about ideal types?’
I swallowed those words, realizing they were fresh out of college.
Then, in the next moment—
All conversation stopped, and silence filled the room.
Rachel, smiling shyly, sipped her martini.
Already blooming into her full radiance lately, her smile seemed to cast a glow around her.
‘Damn it.’
The thought of shooing away all the bugs drawn to her gave me a headache.
Completely unaware, our princess continued speaking bashfully.
“Not an ideal type exactly, but I do have someone I admire…”
“What kind of person?”
“Do you know the story of when Jobs recruited Sculley?”
“‘Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or come with me and change the world?’”
It’s a well-known story, so that line has become a cliché, but Rachel smiled brightly like an innocent child.
“Isn’t it amazing, moving the world like that?”
“Haha, isn’t that setting the bar too high? Jobs, really?”
“I like his words, ‘You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.’”
“There was also that line, wasn’t there? ‘If you’re not going to leave a mark on the universe, then why even exist…’”
The mouths of those who wanted to impress the princess were overflowing with Jobs quotes.
Their eyes were filled with nothing but greed.
‘Seriously, Jobs ruined the world.’
The deification of Jobs wasn’t because of his philosophy; it was because of money.
If he hadn’t made money, would people go around memorizing his quotes like that?
So, anyone who recites Jobs’ sayings is simply someone obsessed with money.
Just like how Jobs created an ecosystem through the smartphone and generated massive wealth, they, too, want to open a new market and rake in money.
When you think about the countless “wannabe Jobs” and the investors jumping on their bandwagon who have disrupted the market, it’s worth questioning whether Jobs actually benefited the world.
‘Well, is Rachel any different?’
Our princess must have taken it to heart for real.
Right now, she’s eagerly sharing her dreams.
“That’s why I thought if I could connect with unknown artists, I might be able to change even their small world…”
The men listened with utmost sincerity, their expressions changing every ten seconds in a noble effort.
‘Should I just let it be?’
It’s a topic our princess enjoys, so it’s nice that there are people listening.
While I sipped my whiskey, Nelson’s friends started a conversation with me.
“Your name’s Sean, right? Where do you plan to go after Goldman?”
“Private equity? Hedge fund?”
Goldman analysts have a two-year contract.
After that, it’s customary to move on to another financial institution, known as the “two and out” system.
The job market is competitive.
Only the top few percent in Goldman’s front-line department manage to transfer to major funds, and those who survive this competition earn the right to boast like these guys, claiming ‘my thing is bigger than yours.’
It’s a big deal on Wall Street.
“If you’re interested in our side, we’ll let you know if something opens up.”
In other words, they were telling me to start cozying up to them.
Ignoring them, I continued sipping my whiskey, but a bitter taste lingered.
‘This isn’t the time for this…’
There’s nothing to gain from dealing with these rookies here.
I need to gather my strength and set a concrete plan.
Then it happened.
Ding!
My smartphone lit up with a notification.
[Alert: David Faunbaum]
For a moment, I forgot to breathe.
This meant my Google alert had been triggered.
“Excuse me, I need to make a call.”
I quickly excused myself and stepped outside.
As I walked, my heart pounded intensely.
‘Finally…’
I found him.
The person I had been waiting for all this time.
The developer of my treatment.
Outside, I immediately opened the link in the alert.
A post from a Castleman disease community filled the screen.
[Author: David Faunbaum]
To advance our understanding of this disease, we need bio-specimens for Castleman disease. If you’re willing to donate a specimen, please email…
Faunbaum is not a common name. There’s no way there would be two people with such a rare surname in a rare disease community. This must be him.
‘I have to secure him no matter what.’
Faunbaum is the one who established the diagnostic criteria for Castleman disease.
Before his work, Castleman was often misdiagnosed as lymphoma.
And that’s not all.
This man discovered the second treatment, the mTOR inhibitor.
If he created one treatment in just a few years, surely, with financial support, he could develop a second.
[Hello, I’m Ha Si-heon. I, too, lost a very dear person to this disease, and I am determined to develop a treatment myself…]
I copied and pasted a pre-written message and sent it to his email.
The content was straightforward:
I’m from Goldman and work in finance. I’ll soon have significant funds coming in, and I want to use all of it solely for this disease, etc.
As I prayed for a favorable response and turned to go back inside,
Ding!
A reply came back quickly.
[Good news indeed. Actually, what we need most right now is funding. Even the basic research costs…]
I was worried he might be the type of academic who’d say, “I don’t need money, I only want to research.”
Thankfully, he was a realistic person.
[I’m curious about how much research has been done on this disease. I checked PubMed but found few resources…]
Finding relevant papers on Castleman disease is challenging.
There isn’t even a code to classify the disease yet.
[That’s right. The available data is mostly case reports of clinical observations…]
Clinical case reports only provide information like “a patient with these symptoms came to our hospital.”
They don’t offer existing research, literature reviews, directions for further investigation, or problems that need solving.
Such information is typically in research papers, but finding ones on Castleman disease isn’t easy either.
There are specific standards for publishing papers in journals.
Generally, studies need to compile multiple cases and provide statistically significant data, which is hard to achieve for rare diseases.
This means they’re often cut off from even getting published.
[I tried to find a Castleman expert, but even that has proven difficult…]
Without papers, finding specialists is challenging.
There’s only one way to find Castleman experts: attend numerous related conferences and ask around.
[It’s hard to find through literature. However, at hematology, immunology, or lymphoma conferences, you can meet people who handle Castleman cases. They often present it as a comparison case rather than a main focus, though…]
Faunbaum has already attended such conferences and managed to find as many as 40 researchers associated with Castleman disease.
‘Yes, this is it!’
A wave of anticipation surged through me.
I need a partner who can take charge of the research while I’m running around on Wall Street. Someone who can be equally proactive in the academic world.
After a few more emails, we reached the same conclusion.
[May I call you?]
[If you share your number, I’ll contact you right now.]
On the other end of the line, the man skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.
– You seem to know a lot of technical details; are you in the field?
“I graduated from medical school.”
– Ah! That should make the conversation easier. As you mentioned, there are currently only clinical case reports…
“Hold on a moment.”
I can hear the specifics later. There’s only one question I want to ask, and it’s better asked in person.
“If possible, I’d like to meet in person. Where are you located?”
– I’m in Philadelphia. Since you’re working on Wall Street, you’re in New York, right?
“Yes, that’s correct.”
– If we were in the same city, I’d meet you right away, but maybe next week…
“No, hold on.”
I removed the phone from my ear and quickly started a search.
This meeting can’t be delayed. Goldman is a glass prison that doesn’t even allow for a personal life, let alone dating. If I wait for a convenient time, I may never meet him.
Philadelphia isn’t that far.
If I had a private jet or helicopter, I could get there in no time, but… unfortunately, I don’t even have my own car right now.
I checked the train schedule; luckily, the first train departs at 3:20 a.m.
The travel time is about an hour and a half.
If I leave now, I can arrive before 5 a.m.
“Could you meet me at 30th Street Station by 5 a.m.?”
