The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 100

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 100.
Though the storage room was located in the basement of the building, Marc had no desire to create such an unpleasant situation.
Impudently assuming the name of a young student to commit fraud—what audacity.
“That’s the personal reason. But there’s a public one as well.”
Setting aside the private sentiment of anticipating Ye Ji’s future, the reason to dispose of Julian’s work was abundantly clear.
From an outsider’s perspective, he was already an established artist with a secure footing.
Yet he had committed the reckless act of stealing a newcomer’s name value?
He could have continued his steady rise, and companies would naturally take notice on their own—why resort to this?
“Clearly, he must have felt he’d hit a wall.
Everything happens for a reason.
He’d evidently concluded that his own ability could no longer sustain an upward trajectory.
Having come this far by modelling himself after Catherine, after all.
He’d reached the limit of imitation.
It was most likely that he’d attempted to switch role models to Ye Ji—someone promising and possessing a similar sensibility to Catherine.
“At that time, Catherine was unwell and impatient, so it might have been possible—
But Ye Ji is different, isn’t she?”
The result of his arrogant attempt to mimic her bold, refined sensibility had created this present situation.
A sparrow trying to follow a stork and splitting its legs in the process.
“Other galleries are already cutting ties with him.”
I’ve simply gone along with the tide.
At Marc’s words, Chloe’s shoulders drew in slightly.
The murmur of people around them sent a chill down her spine.
The more one became known, the more famous—
The price of a mistake grew exponentially heavier.
Especially in this era of rapid rumor and information exchange.
Julian would not easily restore his reputation.
He would quietly be forgotten by all.
Drip. Drip.
Suddenly, a water droplet fell from Ye Ji’s painting and shattered against Chloe’s cheek.
Conversely, those with talent and preparation would receive opportunities just as quickly.
Looking up, the painting that lay before her eyes seemed to exist apart from the silent struggle unfolding behind them—calm and gentle in its composition and light.
“But when did she start preparing?”
Marc asked, his gaze fixed on Ye Ji’s work.
That was the end of the conversation about Julian.
Now that all his works had been disposed of, there would be no reason to recall him further.
“No matter how I think about it, the timing of when the name Ye Ji appeared—”
Wasn’t it overlapping with her solo exhibition preparation?
On top of school life too.
It seemed impossible for one person to manage it all, even if she had two bodies.
“I’m not entirely sure…”
Since Chloe couldn’t be certain on this matter either, she gave a vague answer while continuing to gaze at the painting above.
Could even a solo exhibition provide such freshness?
“…We’ll know soon enough.”
It was something that couldn’t be confirmed through imagination alone.
Marc and Chloe stood quietly, taking in Ye Ji’s work.
***
The end of 2017 had arrived.
Ye Ji gathered with her friends to spend the last day of the passing year and the beginning of the new one together.
In the crowd gathered to hear the temple bell strike, Da Hye and Hyun Min stamped their feet.
“It’s insane! I’m freezing!”
The weather was indeed brutally cold, just as Da Hye said.
Beanie, scarf, long padded coat—
Though bundled up tightly, all three of them had red noses and cheeks from the cold.
Though the chill was undeniable, strangely their spirits soared.
The air around them was thick with excitement and anticipation for the new year.
As if dyed by that atmosphere, the three of them teased each other’s frozen faces and chuckled.
“Do you have any new year wishes?”
At Ye Ji’s question, Da Hye spoke up immediately.
“Please let me get into the university I want.”
Please!
Speaking with the earnestness befitting someone about to enter her final year of high school, Da Hye clasped her hands together in prayer.
Turning to look at Hyun Min, he shrugged while keeping his frozen hands in his padded jacket pockets.
“Nothing special…”
“You’re something else. I wish I could live as carefree as you.”
When Da Hye glanced at him with playful reproach, Hyun Min let out a soft laugh.
“Well, true. That’s good. So if I really had to pick a wish, it would be to stay this carefree next year too.”
Da Hye nodded at Hyun Min’s words.
When you thought about it, it might be the most difficult and greatest wish of all.
To live without incident, in peace.
A life lived with a carefree heart.
“Not a bad wish, really.”
Having said so, Da Hye turned to look at Ye Ji.
“What about you, then?”
At Da Hye’s question, Ye Ji paused to think.
New year’s wishes, goals.
Though it was hardly a novel topic, she felt grateful for a daily life in which such dreams were possible.
“Mostly, I hope my solo exhibition goes well.”
Lately, that’s all she’d been thinking about.
The solo exhibition looming just around the corner.
She was sacrificing sleep and carefully managing her condition.
“And I need to stay healthy first.”
“What kind of wish is that?”
For someone barely nineteen, the wish sounded rather odd.
But for Ye Ji, it was one of the few truly important matters.
“And…”
And also.
“I hope the three of us can come back together like this next New Year’s Eve too.”
Da Hye and Hyun Min nodded in agreement at Ye Ji’s words.
In the end, it came down to doing one’s part well, staying healthy in body, and having friends by your side.
For that life to continue endlessly year after year—that was Ye Ji’s true wish.
The voices of the gathered crowd had begun the countdown.
“Three!”
Caught up in the atmosphere, the three of them shouted the numbers along with the large display.
“Two!”
This moment passing into memory, all these hours accumulating to form Ye Ji, the person she was becoming.
“One!”
Fireworks announcing the new year shot into the sky and burst.
Applause and cheers.
Amid the commotion, Ye Ji turned to her friends beside her and spoke.
“Happy new year.”
And so, the new year had come again.
***
The arrival of a new year didn’t change anyone’s daily life.
Until the very end, Ye Ji remained absorbed in the works she would send to Paris.
Most works had their intended meaning and presentation fully determined at the conception stage.
What followed was the process of translating that initial imagination into reality.
Which was why so many artists employed assistants for mere coloring and line work.
The process of transferring perseverance and patience through one’s fingertips was essentially a race against time.
Ye Ji was no exception.
She too worked by first imagining the piece in her mind and then realizing it as conceived.
Rarely did the meaning or intention shift while actually painting.
But this time was different.

The title of the work she’d changed dozens of times over.
Only after completing the final brushstroke could Ye Ji confirm the work’s name.
Catherine’s .
Her own work, to stand in place of that sea so full of regret, had finally been completed.
Under the title .
……
When the sense of completion settled over Ye Ji, a strange sensation washed through her, and she had to pause for a deep breath.
Something rose and swelled from deep within, catching in her throat.
Six months of preparing the solo exhibition.
From beginning to end, it was the work she had poured the most effort into.
Ye Ji had never spent such an extended period on a single painting.
Click.
She set down her brush.
Any further touch would be mere attachment and greed.
The Answer of the Waves, true to its name, was her own response—the answer to herself, who had churned like waves ever since recalling her past life.
The undulating sea was no longer beyond some distant cliff.
Emerald waves rolling onto golden sand.
Unlike the Cliffs of Étretat, where she had never managed to paint even a single strand of moonlight.
This sea bore countless traces of sunlight.
Along the wave’s crest, sparkling light shattered brilliantly—a glittering sea.
The golden sand was dotted with countless fragments of coral and seashells, rendered with vivid clarity.
Many would stand before Ye Ji’s delicate painting, where each grain of sand seemed visible, and share the exact emotion she now felt.
That sense of connection born from witnessing together a radiant moment in time, seeing the same thing.
Once, the painting had begun in solitude.
But now, Ye Ji was different.
Already, people who would gaze upon the same landscapes as her were gradually gathering around her.
So from now on, Ye Ji’s purpose in painting would be different.
No longer would she paint from loneliness and desperation.
For her, painting now meant connection and continuity.
‘Keep watching.’
What landscape and what destination I will reach.
A wish that was also a request to continue hoping and being part of this journey.
That was the answer Ye Ji had given.
“Now, it’s really done…”
Murmuring once more, Ye Ji exhaled deeply and turned away.
Due to months of constant work without proper cleanup, her surroundings were quite a mess.
She’d clean it later—dried paint stains and scattered pigments left on the floor.
“When am I going to finish all this cleanup…”
Standing amid the remaining tasks, Ye Ji scratched her head in slight bewilderment.
***
In a remote mountain valley, in the snow-covered mountains of Jeongup, Hae Yoon found himself temporarily isolated in his studio due to the unexpected heavy snowfall.
Of course, since he rarely ventured out anyway, being unable to leave for a day or two posed no real problem.
Though the situation was quite different for the young apprentices who had suddenly found themselves trapped in the countryside.
Slurp—
Hae Yoon cooled his hot tea slightly before taking a sip, his eyes fixed on his mobile phone.
There was a New Year’s greeting from Ye Ji, along with the schedule of her first solo exhibition coming next month.
Posters and promotional materials had already been released.
Of course, Ye Ji hadn’t merely sent a brief text greeting.
The way she relied on him, she’d sent him preliminary works for promotional materials—
The main piece she’d poured her heart into remained unrevealed.
She’d called and chatted endlessly about such details.
……
Though Ye Ji seemed to be doing quite well on her own to warrant such reliance, Hae Yoon saw things differently.
Hmm.
As the floor had grown warm from sitting, Hae Yoon rose and opened the large window wide.
A few new apprentices about to graduate from university had entered with the new year, and one of them had caused an accident.
Complaining that refilling firewood every hour was tedious, they’d dumped a load of wood into the furnace at once, and now there was chaos everywhere.
Did young people not understand how furnaces worked?
The lower section of the heating bed had turned pitch black and was beginning to char away, so everyone was running about moving works and furniture in a panic.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been angry.
But now, Hae Yoon was so lost in thought that he let it pass without complaint.
Outside the window, Han Gyu was visible, clearing snow as reliably as always this year.
Looking out at him through the open window, Hae Yoon suddenly posed a question as he sipped his tea.
“Are we busy next month?”
It was Hae Yoon, after all—he could never quite remember his own schedule.
Han Gyu set down his snow shovel and pulled out his mobile phone to check the schedule.
“No, sir. Nothing special.”
Han Gyu had a good idea of why Hae Yoon was asking.
“You want to go to Paris, don’t you, sir?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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