The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 130

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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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Chapter 130.
Han Gyu was taken aback by Da Som’s sudden pleas.
“Look, just calm down for a moment. We’ve all gathered to listen to what happened….”
“No, that! That’s really Mi Rae’s work! I just… I just helped a little bit…. No, I didn’t even just help. I was an assistant! Yeah. I only did that much!”
At her overwrought desperation, Han Gyu’s expression darkened.
What on earth had the girl been put through to end up like this?
Han Gyu had already noticed that Na Mi Rae possessed a subtle gift for persuasion—a cunning way with words.
As Han Gyu glanced helplessly toward Hae Yun.
Hae Yun simply stared at Da Som in silence, unwavering.
His expression was impossible to read—whether pity or fury, there was no telling.
Seized by dread, Da Som began to spill everything of her own accord.
“This can’t happen. If it all comes out like this…. My senior has been paying for my father’s hospital bills…!”
The moment everything was exposed, even that support would vanish—and so Da Som climbed down from the sofa and dropped to her knees.
She must have thought her odds were better with Mu Young than with Hae Yun.
She turned toward Mu Young and began to plead desperately.
“Please save one person—no, an entire family! I beg you!”
The victim of exploitation, on her knees, asking to have it all swept under the rug.
Han Gyu tried to help her up, but the more he pulled, the more urgently she begged.
So Min, watching the scene unfold, was overwhelmed—she wanted to cover her mouth and escape.
If she’d noticed something amiss earlier and told her father right away….
Would things have been different?
‘No. It wouldn’t have.’
Her father wouldn’t have listened to her words so carefully.
It was a shame the situation had grown this large, but she didn’t know if there’d been any other way.
Because she had spoken to Ye Ji.
That suspicion had been able to reach Hae Yun.
“Tell us everything honestly, just as it happened. That’s the only way we can help you.”
Why was she so strong?
Han Gyu, for whom even lifting her had been difficult, spoke in a soothing tone.
At Han Gyu’s promise to help, Da Som’s gaze shifted and she nodded.
Everything was already exposed.
Somehow, she wanted to secure her own way out.
“Yes, I’ll tell you everything. All of it.”
***
Da Som and Mi Rae’s connection was not a long one.
It was a difficult story even to lay out.
Da Som was poor but talented, and had drawn paintings earnestly for her dream since childhood.
She attended a good university on a scholarship and worked any job she could find to scrape together materials.
Unable to secure a studio, she’d begged the school to let her use a space on campus.
But no matter how hard she worked, that was all she could manage.
Tuition, living expenses, materials—she had no choice but to rely on her parents’ support.
‘I should quit painting.’
That thought came in her third year.
Her father, who had been providing for the family, fell ill.
Medical bills crashed down on her like an unbearable weight, demanding immediate payment.
Her mother and she had to find money for living expenses and hospital bills—now, not later.
It was the very least she could do for a father who had sacrificed everything for her until now.
With that resolution made, she looked back at the works she’d completed.
Paintings she couldn’t even bring herself to gather up.
How could she keep something like that in a cramped rented room?
And in a situation where she had to take whatever work paid, whether she liked it or not.
Such things only made her chest ache every time she saw them.
‘Da Som, isn’t this your work?’
‘Isn’t this what Jeong Da Som used to do?’
Mi Rae didn’t miss that opening.
She took Da Som’s abandoned paintings and submitted them as her own for the graduation exhibition.
Of course, Da Som had protested at first.
But what came back was a lifeline of a proposal.
‘If you’re going to throw it away anyway, I’ll buy it. I’ll buy all of it—your talent, your ideas. Then there’s no problem, right?’
Da Som had no choice but to be seduced by Mi Rae’s words.
‘You said you’d do anything to earn money. So why can’t you sell me your ideas and talent?’
Mi Rae’s logic was sound.
Why not?
There was no reason she shouldn’t.
Wasn’t selling paintings to prove her skill better than factory work or delivery jobs?
And so, from that day on, Da Som became Mi Rae’s shadow.
She taught her everything—her ideas, her techniques—and her own works were laundered as Mi Rae’s.
Mi Rae paid out money like wages and settled her father’s hospital bills week by week.
Even knowing it was a leash meant to keep her from running away, there was nothing she could do.
When the only rope keeping you from drowning is rotting, no one refuses to grab it.
Even if you know you’ll fall eventually….
***
“At the very least, not while my father is still alive!”
At Da Som’s words, everyone fell silent.
Poor children with dreams in the arts—especially those with talent—usually sacrifice their entire family pursuing those dreams.
If that sacrifice holds out until success, you might call it fortunate.
But most of the time, it breaks before you reach that point.
Just a little more and you could succeed with your own name?
Doesn’t it hurt to have come this far?
Can’t you just come forward now and claim your talent as your own?
“What about this month’s hospital bills right now? What about this month’s nursing care and living expenses right now…. What materials was that painting made with?”
For people without even tomorrow’s money, let alone a month’s worth, there is no such thing as luxury.
Mi Rae had exploited Da Som with a cunning born of understanding this perfectly.
At first, Mu Young had been angry that Hae Yun showed up unannounced, calling it disrespectful.
“Sigh….”
But as the story unfolded, he merely held his forehead and sighed.
Hae Yun spoke to Da Som, who was shaking while tears and mucus streamed down her face.
“How much do you need?”
“……Sob, sob…. ……What?”
It sounded like dialogue from a melodrama about some chaebol.
But Hae Yun added in that characteristically blunt tone of theirs.
“How much will it take for you to stop taking her side and say what you actually want to say!”
Hae Yun pressed, frustrated.
But the warmth in those words was unmistakable.
Not quite understanding the situation, Da Som stammered.
“What? Um…. Um… No. I, that….”
“We’ll cover it.”
Mu Young cut into their exchange, speaking plainly.
“Na Mi Rae may have been with you until now, but she’s our student now….”
Mu Young drew a clear line in the situation.
“Since this happened because I failed to look after her properly, I’ll make it right.”
It was as if he were deliberately drawing an even clearer boundary with Hae Yun.
Mu Young spoke sharply, then turned to So Min, who was watching the scene with wide eyes.
“Go bring Na Mi Rae.”
So Min stood at once and left the room.
Once Mu Young confirmed his daughter had gone, he looked at Da Som, who was still trying to understand what was happening.
Her story was tragic, but in the art world, it wasn’t particularly rare.
Mu Young himself had once been the son of a poor family.
Catching Hae Yun’s eye had allowed him to earn money faster than others and quickly establish himself as a successful artist.
Even though his circumstances were different, why did he keep seeing his younger self?
As someone mentioned Mi Rae was coming, Mu Young looked at the dejected young man, trembling with despair, and spoke.
“Why did you tell me about this in the first place?”
His gaze still rested on Da Som, but everyone understood the question was directed at Hae Yun.
“…….”
Hae Yun didn’t answer, but Mu Young asked again.
“Why didn’t you report it to Blank Gallery immediately instead of coming to me?”
Mu Young’s tone was vicious, aggressive.
His attitude was enough to make Han Gyu uncomfortable as well.
What followed was even worse.
“Did I still look like some half-wit who couldn’t handle it?”
At Mu Young’s distortion of Hae Yun’s intentions, Hae Yun clicked their tongue.
Actually, they hadn’t known, so there was nothing to handle, they pointed out silently.
For someone with Hae Yun’s temper, holding back and not responding was remarkably restrained.
“Let’s talk about this later.”
At Hae Yun’s words that this wasn’t something to say in front of the kids, Mu Young still wore a savage expression.
Not long after, Na Mi Rae entered.
“You called….”
And the moment she saw everyone inside, her face went pale.
***
Around that same time, Ye Ji was still at the Cafe spending time with her friends.
“I don’t think we necessarily have to turn down the interview, though.”
The problem was that this exhibition was being entered under Ye Ji’s name, not Goyo’s.
To begin with, Goyo didn’t meet the criteria for Blank Gallery’s New Artist Exhibition.
That name had never held a solo show before.
So doing an interview as Goyo was impossible from the start.
“If they’re looking for an interview with Goyo, maybe we could talk to Han Sung and set up something more formal instead?”
If they wanted a bigger story, that angle might be better.
There was a good chance any interview would be used for promotional purposes anyway.
If so, a solo interview with a journalist respected in the art world could benefit both sides.
That way, there shouldn’t be any problems….
Ye Ji spoke casually.
“But I’d like to know how that journalist figured it out.”
What part had been so obvious that they’d noticed?
There was no need to know, but it was a painter’s personal curiosity.
And what kind of person was someone who could read that?
Pure curiosity, nothing more.
It seemed risky to reveal herself as Goyo for such a reason alone.
‘But they found me just by looking at the paintings in the first place.’
It was someone who would eventually discover the truth anyway.
Hyun Min nodded similarly.
It felt like they’d end up deeply involved with this person, and if so, they needed to understand who they were dealing with.
“So you want to meet them directly?”
“Yeah. I want to know what kind of person they are.”
At Ye Ji’s words, Hyun Min nodded.
At Hyun Min’s answer that he’d set up a meeting, Ye Ji picked up her next plate of cake.
“So anyway. When are we done eating this?”
“We eat everything we ordered before we leave.”
At Hyun Min’s words, Da Hye quickly agreed and bit into an egg tart.
“This is binge eating. You two have already eaten eight slices of cake.”
“Want me to show you what real binge eating is?”
Ignoring Hyun Min’s comment, Da Hye cheekily stuffed another tart into her mouth with gusto.
Se Hee watched Da Hye eating so contentedly, then suddenly turned her gaze toward the window.
Then she pointed her finger out abruptly.
“Hey! Look at that!”
The four of them were in a second-floor cafe in the building right in front of Blank Gallery.
Through the large window, employees exiting through a side door of the gallery were clearly visible.
“What is it?”
Employees in dark clothing.
They were quietly removing the very painting that had complicated Ye Ji’s judging—the problematic work.
“Is that… theft?”
“It doesn’t look like it—they’re clearly gallery staff, and it’s broad daylight….”
As Da Hye and Hyun Min’s conversation continued.
One of them disappeared into a narrow alley between buildings with the painting.
An employee holding a frame suddenly got into a vehicle and drove away from the scene.
At the sudden spectacle, all four of them looked at each other.
What in the world was happening?

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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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