The Scientist 2
Chemistry - Lab 9 (Aroma Compound study)
Breathe Matsumoto. Breathe.
Door
- open.
“Hi. I’m Matsumoto Jun, from Molecular Biology Department err.. Microbiology Lab 4 to be precise”
It was his first meeting with him. A tan guy with sleepy brown eyes, shorter than him and… Currently busy gobbling on his bento.
“Ah. Sorry! … Curry… Delicious! Spicy! Water!!!” The guy suddenly erupts and run to the front table to grab a bottle of mineral water. Matsumoto laugh. This scene totally made his day. For some reason, this guy in front of him is very interesting.
“Sorry. Un - hi! I am Ohno. Dr. Ohno Satoshi. Can I help you?” Smile exchanges and handshake.
“Matsumoto. Dr. Matsumoto Jun, from Microbiology Lab 4. I’m here to ask for your favor actually. I need Phenols. I promise, to replace it when our lab received the new stock. Please. Please. It’s really important”
He didn’t realize that he sound that desperate but in this situation, he totally hope this guy can totally save his life. He believes God will not send a random curry guy before his eyes; just play with his fate.
Ohno gradually smile and nodded his head
“Ma…Guess today is your lucky day. I think it is on the second shelves inside that four degree celcius refrigerator. Take it! I don’t really use it. Just buy it for the sake of… wasting grant money I think. ” Ohno grin sheepishly while unconsciously doodling some random pattern on his palm. Matsumoto never feel to be this relieved and super happy but he feels like squeezing this cute man in front of him as the sign of gratitude.
“THANK YOU OHNO SENSEI! YOU SAVE MY LIFE. I DON’T WANT TO END MY LIFE BY EATING ROTTEN YOGURT ACTUALLY”
Okay. Nonsense words, finally. Save this situation Matsumoto.
The next thing he knew, he was totally lost for word and red as tomato. He heard Ohno laugh and it was infectious. He eventually breaks the barrier and laugh with Ohno.
“Ano… Can you tolerate spicy foods Matsumoto san?” Ohno ask earnestly.
Eating in laboratory is probably such a grave crime, from his opinion but hey, rules are meant to be broken… and he can’t reject free curry. He promised himself that he will never let Aiba to know about this matter!
************************************************************************
On autumn, Matsumoto Jun believes he actually has lunch buddies now. Ohno is not the most talkative guy on earth, but whenever he starts to complain on something, Ohno is there, to listen and sometime responding by suggesting weird ideas as the solution for his problem. He feels so happy, to make friend, not that he never have friend previously. Aiba is one of his best friends, and he honestly miss him, a lot actually. They still keep in touch, but since Aiba is currently busy with his animal conservation program, and ahem, at the same time, trying to win one of the lecturer heart; from economic department he believes, Matsumoto knew, he can’t rely on Aiba alone to overcome this loneliness.
“Love is very cuticle, Jun pon!. So cuticle! So critical! It is like… a bunch of molecule, stuff together inside this… un… space. Like how you put water inside balloon. It expands and urges to burst. I can’t. I can’t describe it!!! ” Matsumoto grins whenever he remembers about this sentence. Drunk Aiba was being sappy and he refuses to correct Aiba’s English. Drunk from sake. And drunk from love.
He made mental note that whoever this Sakurai Sho, if he ever break Aiba’s heart, he going to punch him and make his death like a car accident.
During early winter, the weather sometime can change abruptly and the winds are always sharp and brisk. Matsumoto hates this kind of weather. He is really bad with cold. He burrowed his face further inside his scarf while Ohno, with only a normal leather jacket, walk slowly next to him. Both of them share the same train direction, with Ohno was three stops before him. Matsumoto quickly rummage his bag and took out two oranges, gave one to Ohno.
Ohno’s eyebrow furrowed. Staring at the mandarin orange, like some kind of meteor specimen.
Bemused with the reaction, Matsumoto took the orange from Ohno’s hand and peeled it for him.
“This is orange. It has been exist on earth since… I don’t know. Look, all you need is to peel it. But today I am so kind, I shall peel it for you”
“…. Don’t talk to me like I am an alien Matsumoto kun!” Ohno laughed.
He noticed that Ohno love to eat, almost anything. He swore that if all chemicals in Ohno’s lab are edible, he probably managed to see Ohno doing … various… brave stunts gulping down strong acid or munching down Ammonium Nitrate. Nevertheless, Matsumoto loves to feed him. He loves to pay attention to every detail about Ohno. He loves how those chubby cheeks appear when Ohno busy swallowing his foods.
Until one day he realized, Ohno is everything to him. He cannot pretend that they are just a normal friend anymore.
There is this huge boundary, and he plans to crumble it.
One evening, while walking together to the nearby metro station;
“Satoshi. Do you know about PCR?”
“Polymerase Chain Reaction? I think I’ve learnt it in my degree life. “ Ohno paused before continue “But I never used that machine. Since I’m chemistry major”
“You know how the mechanism works behind the machine isn’t” Jun smile.
“Yeah. Bit. Hahaha. My brain is not that, biology friendly Junji!”
“Desired target in DNA sequence will be amplified when two primers, well complementary with each other bind to the target sequence and amplified the target gene. That’s how it work”
Ohno blink. He wanted to ask but he doesn’t know what the most appropriate question for now is.
“Let me give you more realistic example. If there is a desired target, let say the genetic sequence for that gene is L O V E and the first primer is, un - J U N and the complementary anti sense primer is - S A T O S H I, if both of primer works together, they will manage to figure out the desired DNA target, the L O V E sequence will be amplified and can be viewed using agarose gel viewed under UV transilluminator. What do you think about this Satoshi?”
Ohno stop walking and immediately hug Matsumoto dearly.
It was the best, sappiest and most scientific confession ever.
From Matsumoto san to Matsumoto kun, to Jun, Junchan, Junji.
From Ohno san to Ohno kun to Satoshi, Toshi, SatoP.
During spring, they even went out shopping and bought a box of mandarin orange together at the nearby China Town.
Life expanding beyond expected. Those loneliness and irk feelings towards the so called higher researchers board were long gone. Matsumoto never expected him to be any happier but Ohno presence seems to sooth him. Aiba’s theory is correct. Love is indeed very critical and his own myogenic muscular organ agrees. It feels Ohno, every single beats.