Nobody Like You

Talented Little Ass

Yeju

I hate it when girls cry.

Whenever Yuna cried, I ended up caving to her every demand and letting her win every argument. And when I saw Lia's bloodshot eyes, I felt myself shrivel too.

Shit. This day was terrible enough, and now, I made someone cry—a younger girl I am supposed to be in charge of. My heart strangles in my chest; all my anger dissipates, and guilt takes over.

I screwed up. I know I did.

When we are done cleaning up the autoclave, we go back to my desk. This time, I grab a chair for Lia to sit on. She sniffs as she thanks me, her usually sweet and silvery voice thick with tears.

Darren is still in the office, and I can feel his eyes drilling a hole in the back of my head. Heat crawls up my cheeks.

I know, I know. I screwed up big time. It's one thing to annoy Lia at home and another to scream at her in the workplace. Especially as her mentor.

But fuck, today has been terrible, okay?

I rub the bridge of my nose. "How much did Victoria tell you about the project?"

Lia shuffles in her seat. "She said... it was like... developing these things called small molecule inhibitors, and they can stop bacteria from being toxic without fully killing them, or something?"

So basically Victoria did not tell her anything substantial.

"Yeah, that's the... layman's description of it, I guess. I'll explain more." I open my laptop and pull out the presentation slides I made for a meeting a month ago. "As you probably know, our lab studies bacteria, especially those that exist in a community. My project focuses on the gut microbiome—a community of bacteria living in the gut—and this molecule made by the gut microbiome called colibactin.

"The gut microbiome has many implications on human health—you might have seen all the hype in the news or whatever. People have shown that this molecule, colibactin, can cause DNA damage and may lead to colorectal cancer."

Lia's hands fly to her stomach as if that could stop her gut microbiome from producing colibactin. I suppress a smile and return to my presentation.

"Our lab has done lots of previous work to figure out how gut bacteria make colibactin. And that's important because if you can figure out how colibactin is made, you can figure out how to stop it from being made. And that's what my project is about. The goal is to design something that can stop bacteria from making colibactin without killing that bacteria and affecting the overall bacteria community.

"After about three years of work, I made this small molecule inhibitor that can do just that. Here's what it looks like." I circle the picture on my slide with the cursor. "And here's how it works: the molecule binds to the bacterial protein and stops it from making colibactin."

As Lia admires the images, I cannot help but feel a small rush of pride. This is the end product of my work, the fruits of my labor. But as usual, bitterness washes away all traces of happiness in me. Right after this success were years of constant failures. Roadblocks and detours. Work that went down the drain.

Just like the entirety of today.

Anger boils over, and I let out a loud sigh to release it. Lia jolts at that.

"Sorry," I grumble. "Anyway, now we're working on the next steps for this project. This is where you'll come in to help."

"Next steps?" Gasping, Lia sits up. "Oh, oh, are we going to test it in mice or something? Like for a drug?"