pslplz | Ship-testing catchall

Soo-won wordlessly took the coffee, though he didn't drink yet. There was a strange intimacy to the moment, and he could hear in Kuranosuke's voice that note of concern that so seldom surfaced for the people he spoke with.

"A little sometimes... But there are things I want to do. Being myself would be akin to shooting myself in the foot. I can bear it for that."

He allowed a pause, taking a sip of the coffee.

"I wonder about you as well. To live without guise makes for easier interaction, but do you never long for a richer social life?" Not that he was really one to talk on that point. He had almost no one close to him either.

Soo-won had goals. Kuranosuke could respect that. Not everybody had the same tolerance or skills. If it worked for Soo-won, then he wasn't going to judge him for it.

He turned and half-sat on the edge of the couch, drinking his own coffee and pondering the question that Soo-won pushed right back at him. If he were anybody else in the world, he would have deflected the question with a snort.

"...I haven't really thought about it."

Maybe that was weird. Kuranosuke never craved the society of countless people. He had his brother. And Soo-won. And Kenya. What more did he need?

"Do you?"

Edited 2016-04-01 04:43 (UTC)

For all of Kuranosuke's abundant candidness, it was a rare person who would be gifted with a real answer to a question like that. Soo-won wouldn't press the matter; it was gratifying enough that perhaps later, he -would- think about it.

When the question was turned back at him, he exhaled slowly, pondering.

"I'm not sure. In certain respects, to crave meaningful relationships is human..."

And it went without saying, that to not be sure, there was a counterweight that left him not quite itching to change the status quo.

This time, Kuranosuke did snort. He leaned back a little, cocking his head to the side so he could look Soo-won in the face.

"And what's meaningful, to you?"

"Ahhh, I'm sorry! To suggest I didn't have any wasn't my intent..." That was a bit awkward. Soo-won doubted that Kuranosuke was offended, but all the same, it would be an unfortunate miscommunication.

And then again, not even Kuranosuke was let all the way in. Soo-won didn't think anyone held that status. Perhaps that was the heart of his message: a recognition that there was no one to whom he could bare himself completely and be comfortable doing so. There was, most likely, such a thing as too guarded, and Soo-won suspected he qualified.

"What I meant was, I recognize in myself a conflict in nature, wanting more and not wanting more at the same time. Strange, isn't it. Do you ever experience that?"

Soo-won responded with some awkwardness, which Kuranosuke found weirdly amusing. He wasn't offended, and Soo-won probably knew that too. So why did he care so much? Or care enough to be awkward, anyway.

He couldn't really say he understood the conflict Soo-won found in himself. That was the difference between them, maybe. They both lacked something that most people had. But Soo-won sometimes wanted it, while Kuranosuke never did. At least, he was pretty sure he didn't.

"...No," he answered after a moment. And he couldn't help but add, with a teasing grin: "You're pretty put together, for a guy who's so conflicted."

Soo-won chuckled at the tease, a hint of mystery lingering in his green eyes. To say that it was a conflict that was tearing him apart would certainly be a stretch. And all the same, Kuranosuke had just observed that he was someone who put on a show of sorts for most of the world. That by necessity meant that there were certain aspects of himself that he hid. This was one of them.

"Well. I wouldn't call it a source of severe inner turmoil," he granted. Most of the time, he didn't even think about it, really. There were far more important matters to focus on.

"Actually, the things that trouble me most are things I see in the world around us... Things like the corruption in business and politics, and some of the parasitic practices certain industries engage in for the sake of spiking profits."

If there was a conflict in Soo-won, this would be the greater one. Or maybe it was more a contradiction than conflict. For someone so disconnected from his fellow man in his personal life, he certainly seemed to care a great deal about what happened to humanity in general.

As for high level corruption and corporate greed ... such things have always been around. The practical (some might say cynical) side of Kuranosuke knew that it was just human nature. You shouldn't trouble yourself over things that were inevitable. Somehow, he doubted that Soo-won was the kind of person who mulled over things that he couldn't change.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to do something about that?"

"Would there even be a way to?" He asked, but the tone of his voice was exploratory, not defeated. Kuranosuke knew him well; he did intend to do something about it. But before acting, he needed a solid strategy. And before he had a solid strategy, he needed some information that would be best known by the experts in the fields.

"Inertia is a powerful force. Many of these problems are systemic, too broad in scale to be tackled without communal agreement. What's more, few of the relevant communities will be inclined to agree when the status quo is in their personal best interest... It would take both an instigator of change and a new approach that would flip the economic interests into natural alignment with the desired change."

Whether Soo-won was a revolutionary idealist or sanctimonious twit, Kuranosuke could not say. One thing he did know what the he was no idiot. Whatever this 'desired change' was, he knew the guy wouldn't rest until he could figure out a way to see it through. Kuranosuke wondered where that level of caring came from. You would never guess it, from the day-to-day face the man put on. Maybe at the end of the day, it wasn't really about any one person in particular, but a broader vision for everybody.

"Sounds like a real pain in the ass," Kuranosuke said with a smirk. "You'd better get on it, then."

"I suppose I should. So, Mr. Financial Advisor," Soo-won countered with a smile and a twinkle in his eye that said Kuranosuke perhaps should have expected this sort of follow-up. "If I were to have an idea for accomplishing that, would I be able to get some feedback on its viability?"

"Ooh, I see. You wanna drag me into this," Kuranosuke said dryly. He sat back into the couch across from Soo-won and looked at him with some amusement. "It might cost you."

"That would only be fair, wouldn't it? All right. In exchange for your standard consulting fee, consider the following bold proposal:

I want to start a company."

Honestly, it's not the financial cost Kuranosuke was talking about. Money, he knows how to make. But favors ... that's something else. But he plays along.

"I'm listening."

"Everyone knows that medicine is expensive, and that the reason lies in the research and development costs. Yet it's also something that many people need, including those without the budget for such costs. I've spoken with a few employees at existing companies, and it seems quite a few projects end up abandoned halfway through. I'd like to start a team of researchers to piggyback on that half-finished work, buying the information at a discount from other companies. This strategy would enable the company to finish the development at a lower cost and pass those savings on to consumers."

It seems like such a simple idea; it makes Soo-won a bit concerned that no one else has tried it already. He wonders if there are financial considerations he hasn't considered that make it unfeasible.

"Would that be doable?"

"That depends," Kuranosuke says rather vaguely. Like with any investment, there will be a lot of moving parts. Pharma just happens to be one of the riskier ones.

He has a great eye for how certain products or companies will perform, but medicine is notoriously unpredictable and time consuming.

"You'll need to buy a lot, and be prepared for a fair number of set-backs."

Soo-won parses that advice carefully. It's going to be incredibly expensive at start-up, is what he gathers from it. Heavy upfront costs and he'll need enough reserves on top of that to hedge against multiple obstacles.

"I see... And I want to be careful about relying too heavily on stock issuance. I don't want to be so beholden to shareholders that they can demand higher prices to leech the savings into their own pockets."

Not to mention, just being the CEO doesn't mean you can get away with everything. They can always replace you if they hold the sway of the shares.

"People always wanna know how you're playing with their money."

It's just the way it is. That's why it's so important to make your own.

"What impact would registering as a nonprofit have on those factors?"

After all, Soo-won isn't interested in money beyond whatever is needed to start and maintain the process.

He shrugs. "It'll just change who you're accountable to." Nonprofits have to maintain their status under the scrutiny of regulations, after all.

Government or investors. Pick your poison. There's a lot of red tape involved with one path. But perhaps it's a bold new way to create medicine.

Accountability to rules Soo-won thought was manageable. What he needed was a cost advantage, one that included that from lacking indebtedness to those who expected an exorbitant return on investment.

"I see. Thank you for your input. As I thought, there's more planning to do."

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