The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 11

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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 11.
Yi Ye-ji rushed after her friends to check the rankings.
First, from the top….

1st Place, Class 1, No. 12 Yi Ye-ji
“What?”
Really?
Yi Ye-ji, startled, looked once more at the large official notice posted on the bulletin board.

1st Place, Class 1, No. 12 Yi Ye-ji
2nd Place, Class 1, No. 4 Kim Ji-an
“Hey! Yi Ye-ji got first place!”
Hyun Min was the first to shout.
Hearing that booming voice, reality finally came back to her.
Her grades, which had always hovered around twentieth place at best….
“Eeek! Yi Ye-ji! You got first! You really worked hard!”
While the stunned Yi Ye-ji stood speechless, Da-hye ran up and cried out.
“Oh my, how impressive!”
Da-hye made a fuss and pulled Yi Ye-ji into a hug, shouting.
Really, first place.
“For real? I really got first place?”
“Yes! Look! Anyone can see you’re at the very top…!”
Just then, Kim Ji-an appeared, pushing aside the excitedly chattering Da-hye.
Between the students, each discussing their own grades—some frustrated, some delighted—
Rip—
Kim Ji-an snatched the notice and tore it to shreds.
Then, with a murderous expression, she shoved her way through the gathered students and passed on.
Students from other classes who remembered her as a model student all wore bewildered expressions.
She was already systematically destroying her own image.
How smooth and peaceful a life must one have lived to be unable to face even this degree of circumstance?
“Wow, what? A paragon of character.”
Uh-huh, but that won’t change your ranking anyway.
At Da-hye’s childish murmur behind Kim Ji-an, Yi Ye-ji burst into laughter.
As she said—she had beaten and surpassed her.
The result would not change now.
Perhaps stimulated by Yi Ye-ji’s improvement, Da-hye’s grades had also risen considerably compared to the first semester.
A semester’s effort was proved in numbers.
The two headed home from school with proud achievements and excited hearts.
“When did you raise your course grades like that? You must have done really well on the final exam?”
“I guess. I stayed up all night and worked hard. Wanted to completely crush that irritating guy.”
Yi Ye-ji answered adequately, but the reason was clear.
It was that she didn’t need to stress excessively about drawing.
Rather, Yi Ye-ji had relieved her stress through drawing and creating work.
So naturally, her focus on academics could only have increased significantly.
Yi Ye-ji saw off Da-hye, who kept chattering in excited tones about how amazing it all was.
“See you!”
“See you tomorrow.”
With the usual parting words, Yi Ye-ji headed toward the familiar bus stop.
“Student Yi Ye-ji.”
That was when it happened.
As Yi Ye-ji was heading to catch the bus home, she suddenly turned around at the sound of someone calling her name.
“This is a courier delivery.”
A courier on a motorcycle, holding a document envelope, asked again.
“You’re Yi Ye-ji, a 1st year at Cheongrim Art High School, correct?”
“Yes? Well, that’s right, but….”
Wait, a courier delivery on the street?
Yi Ye-ji, finding this situation unusual no matter how she thought about it, looked around nervously.
Just then, Hyun Min, who was leaving school, noticed the situation and approached.
“Yi Ye-ji, what’s going on? Who is this?”
A strange adult accosting a student in front of the school was definitely cause for caution.
“It’s a courier, apparently.”
“That’s you, right?”
The courier, who seemed to be in a hurry, pressed Yi Ye-ji.
Then he simply thrust a brown document envelope into her hands.
“Wait, who sent this….”
The courier didn’t listen to Yi Ye-ji’s question and started his motorcycle to leave.
Yi Ye-ji, having received an envelope from an unknown source, turned to Hyun Min with a bewildered expression.
“What is this? What on earth….”
When she touched the envelope, she felt something inside.
“Well, it came to you, so open it.”
At Hyun Min’s words, Yi Ye-ji, still looking flustered, opened the envelope.
In any case, there’s only one Yi Ye-ji, 1st year at Cheongrim Art High School, so it must be right.
She roughly tore open the envelope with her hand and pulled out the contents.
“……photographs?”
Inside were several photographs.
“It’s Kim Ji-an?”
Hyun Min, looking at the photos beside her, recognized the person in them.
In the dark night, beneath a street lamp and the large iron gate of a massive mansion.
Three people stood before it.
“Kim Ji-an’s mother, and that person—the director of Bellaggio. Jung Do-hyun.”
“Ah.”
Yi Ye-ji seemed to remember as well.
Kim Ji-an’s mother, whom she’d seen at the gallery.
And Jung Do-hyun, the judge she’d met on the day the artwork was damaged.
“……why are these three together?”
And why had this photograph come to her by courier?
Yi Ye-ji flipped the document envelope over to see if anything else remained inside.
From it came a business card and a small USB drive.
XX Errand Center
010-XXXX-XXXX
“…….”
As Yi Ye-ji alternated her gaze between the USB and the business card in her hands, Hyun Min tapped her shoulder.
“This seems really important.”
“It does.”
After that, Yi Ye-ji examined each photograph from the envelope together with Hyun Min.
She couldn’t identify who sent it, but the purpose was becoming dimly clear.
“Is someone trying to help?”
As Hyun Min said.
This looked like evidence against Kim Ji-an, who seemed suspicious.
She’d need to check the USB to know for certain.
“Let’s talk about this again tomorrow. I’m going!”
It seemed better to discuss it after confirming everything.
As she watched Hyun Min leave with those words, Yi Ye-ji noticed her bus approaching.
Since there was nothing more she could confirm standing on the street, Yi Ye-ji boarded the bus.
***
She had always been above average, but not the best.
That her daughter had suddenly placed first in her entire year group made her parents naturally delighted.
“My goodness, really! First place in the entire year at that difficult art high school. How proud we must be!”
“Ugh, it’s nothing. Really. First place in the year! First place!”
When Yi Ye-ji arrived at the restaurant, her parents were already bragging to everyone around them on the phone.
“Oh my, Ye-ji’s here. Yes, yes. Stop now. I’ll call you again!”
“Yes. Oh, we should eat something nice! Since Ye-ji’s here, I’ll call you back later. Yes. Take care.”
Hearing her parents bragging to both grandmothers, Yi Ye-ji couldn’t help but laugh.
Even the restaurant staff member grilling meat at the next table held back a smile and asked.
“Looks like you got first place in your year, huh? You must be good at studying~ Congratulations!”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“Here, this is done. Eat first!”
Yi Ye-ji placed a perfectly grilled piece of Korean beef in her mouth.
The sound of her parents’ voices, bragging about her like background music, finally stopped.
“Grandmother and your maternal grandmother are so happy. Ye-ji.”
“When you visit during vacation, we might as well throw a village celebration!”
“A celebration is too much….”
Yi Ye-ji replied matter-of-factly, feeling a bit embarrassed, but her heart was light.
As much as the meat piling up on her plate.
The way her parents couldn’t help but pour out pride and joy for her.
She was happy seeing them delighted about her accomplishment more than their own.
“It must be wonderful that your daughter studies so well.”
“Oh, it’s not just about studying well, you know? Cheongrim Art High School—you know the place? She draws pictures well there too….”
“Dad, please!”
Her father began to get carried away in response to the restaurant staff’s polite remark.
Yi Ye-ji, her face burning, tried to stop him, but her father seemed to be in good spirits.
She couldn’t help but laugh, her face flushed.
“Come on, our daughter! Open wide!”
“Ah—”
Yi Ye-ji shoved a large piece of wrapped meat into her mouth.
So this is family.
A sense of belonging and connection she couldn’t have felt even a thread of in her past life.
The artificial lights and city glow seemed more beautiful than the lush nature where she’d lived back then.
“Ah, I’ve eaten so much.”
“Are you going to draw again tonight?”
After eating meat until she was stuffed, they even had shaved ice for dessert.
Feeling like she’d roll around if she just lay down, Yi Ye-ji stood before the canvas she’d been sketching on.
“Yeah, just until I digest!”
Ever since the Annual Exhibition Competition ended, Yi Ye-ji had begun working on something new.
She couldn’t fully immerse herself due to the final exam, but that made the work all the more enjoyable.
Struggling through textbooks and past exam papers that made her head ache, then drawing little by little.
If organizing one’s desk during exam period was fun, how much fun must this have been?
“Hmm….”
Yi Ye-ji’s room was structured entirely for painting work.
Her bed and desk were pushed to one side to take up minimal space.
An easel and works of various sizes hung on the walls were still drying.
It was a bit cold from ventilation, but if it’s cold, she could just wear more layers.
Yi Ye-ji, about to pick up a brush, froze.
“Oh, that’s right.”
That document envelope.
She’d completely forgotten about it while having fun with her happy parents.
A life with more good things than negative ones—what a blessing that was.
Instead of picking up a brush, Yi Ye-ji retrieved her backpack and plugged the USB from the envelope into her laptop.
There was only one file inside.
“……an audio recording?”
Yi Ye-ji immediately clicked to play the file.
[“What the hell!”]
“Oh my.”
A shout came through the laptop speaker loud enough to burst it.
Yi Ye-ji, startled, paused the file.
The file was about two minutes long.
After adjusting the volume, Yi Ye-ji played it again, and conversation resumed.
Given how clearly background noise came through, it seemed the file had been recorded from quite far away and artificially amplified.
[“If you’d done your job properly in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened at all!”]
[“By what right do you criticize our child?!”]
[“My skills are sufficient! It’s because that girl used cheap shortcuts that this happened!”]
[“The shortcuts are something you people used! If you hadn’t damaged the artwork, you could’ve gotten away with it!”]
[“In any case, if you took money, you just need to deliver what you promised!”]
[“That’s why we’re returning the money!”]
[“Did she get paid by Yi Ye-ji? Is that why you’re taking double? How much more have you taken?!”]
[“Ha, haha! Your level of thinking is… I don’t even want to talk anymore. Handle your own problems from here on!”]
After that, the sound of a car door opening and closing rang out, and the audio ended.
Yi Ye-ji, who had been listening intently, straightened her bent-over posture as if she’d nearly tumbled into the laptop.
“…Wow.”
Yi Ye-ji checked the photographs that had been in the envelope again.
Kim Ji-an, her mother, and the gallery director who had been a judge for the Annual Exhibition Competition.
If this was a recording of their conversation, it was remarkably clear evidence.
Legal questions about the validity of the recording seemed irrelevant.
If this became public, at minimum it would be difficult for Kim Ji-an to continue attending Cheongrim Art High School.
“…….”
She was curious about who had sent this, but it didn’t matter.
That person clearly wanted to remain anonymous and simply passed along the materials quietly.
If someone helping her wanted anonymity, there was no need to dig deeper.
What mattered was that evidence had come into her hands.
“The question is what to do with it….”
Yi Ye-ji looked out the door for a moment.
Telling her parents would be the most student-like thing to do, but she didn’t want to.
Her parents were too kind and sensible.
Being grateful for having such parents, she didn’t quite want to extend the same treatment to Kim Ji-an.
If she handed this over, her parents would probably try to follow proper procedures.
‘And then they’d try to silence her with money again, and make a mess of things.’
She didn’t know Kim Ji-an well, but she could figure out at least that much.
She thought the girl was smart, but she’d simply become an idiot who’d tasted money and power in all the wrong ways.
It was impressive enough that she’d managed to maintain an image otherwise until now.
But the image Kim Ji-an had carefully built was already shattered through her clash with Yi Ye-ji.
Now that her true nature had been revealed to some degree.
Yi Ye-ji didn’t want to let this situation pass quietly.
“Let’s blow this wide open.”

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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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