The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 21

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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 21.
There had to be a reason she’d warned him so urgently.
And now he saw it.
“Ah…….”
A small sound of dismay escaped Ye-ji’s lips as well.
The wall stretched wide and empty, but the distance from the elevator to the wall was barely two meters—cramped and narrow.
So the artist currently exhibiting there had filled the space with nothing but their biography, leaving the rest bare.
“This isn’t some test, is it?”
“Are you crazy? There’d be no shortage of artists willing to show here, no matter what.”
Even if it was a difficult spot, exhibition spaces had their own hierarchy.
At Hyun-min’s words, Ye-ji studied the space where her work would hang with careful consideration.
“If you make the most of it, though, it’s actually a really good location.”
Ye-ji let out a hollow laugh at his comment.
“Right, if you make the most of it. Really make the most of it.”
So the question was how to do exactly that.
After glancing around the immediate area, Ye-ji moved to another floor.
Naturally, the entire building wasn’t just gallery space.
Upstairs there were offices and cafés, so there was a steady stream of foot traffic.
“And on top of that, there’s a separate annex building……”
“The annex is just a single floor.”
Through the window on the second floor, she could see the modest annex building.
In hindsight, she was glad she hadn’t gone with the other students to exhibit there.
Multiple works crammed into one rectangular, featureless space? Viewers would compare them all at a glance.
The layout made that inevitable.
“Choosing here instead of there was the right call.”
Hyun-min seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“This main building is plenty big and spacious. Not everyone who visits even bothers to check the annex.”
As Hyun-min spoke, Ye-ji took in the second-floor exhibition as well.
Various pieces of furniture crafted with mother-of-pearl inlay were scattered throughout the space.
These days, few homes actually incorporated mother-of-pearl furniture.
“But if people are decorating just portions of their homes rather than whole rooms, they tend to like this kind of approach.”
Children’s furniture and pet furniture adorned with elaborate, delicate mother-of-pearl looked charming and fresh in a way that surprised her.
And beside those pieces, smaller works were hung here and there—perfect complements to the furniture.
Now she noticed the display arrangement varied depending on what was being shown.
“Whether corporations or individuals buy art, they’re really buying it as interior decoration for their buildings or homes.”
“……I suppose that’s true.”
Hyun-min’s advice was pragmatic.
Ultimately, to catch the eye of potential buyers, design elements were necessary.
“Even collectors buying for investment don’t want their paintings gathering dust in a warehouse.”
Something that fits anywhere.
Inoffensive, yet distinctive enough to stand out from the rest.
Something that would capture the attention of people who came to see Jung Hae-yun’s work.
“…….”
As the conditions multiplied, her thoughts became as contradictory as a hot iced americano.
Yet somehow, a vague idea was beginning to take shape in Ye-ji’s mind.
“It would’ve been nice if this were purely a painting exhibition. Too bad.”
Hyun-min said that, but Ye-ji actually found this more helpful.
In her past life, she had been absorbed only in her own skills and works.
What she’d lacked was exposure to diverse perspectives.
Literally—her eyes hadn’t seen properly, so she’d missed out on variety and held narrow views about art.
Perhaps because of that, Ye-ji felt a stronger pull toward seeing different things and drawing inspiration from them.
“No, actually it was perfect.”
The smooth, lustrous jade accessories, the glittering mother-of-pearl furniture reflecting light.
This was the exhibition that best captured Korean aesthetics—both ornate and refined, beautifully paradoxical.
After spending considerable time examining the gallery,
the two of them left Seohwawon.
Though she’d thought they were just browsing, two hours had already slipped away.
“It really is sprawling.”
“Aren’t you nervous?”
Hyun-min asked casually.
It was obvious that hanging anything mediocre in a place like this would only invite embarrassment.
He was curious whether seeing it in person had made her have second thoughts.
“……No? If anything, it feels like it’s working out.”
Ye-ji was actually growing more hopeful about the scale of the gallery.
Of course, it wasn’t her solo show, just a side piece in someone else’s exhibition.
‘But an opportunity is still an opportunity.’
Bit by bit, step by step.
A chance to show her work to more and more people.
Noticing her expression, Hyun-min nodded and pulled out his phone.
“Park Da-hye says she’ll come after her Korean class.”
Da-hye had hagwon today, so she’d be joining them later.
Without Da-hye, they would’ve wrapped up by now, but the three of them had agreed to grab dinner together for the first time in a while.
Da-hye had insisted she couldn’t be left out and declared she’d be coming no matter what.
“Hey! Oops.”
As they waited for Da-hye in the quiet café,
she arrived loudly, startled by the quiet atmosphere, and rushed over while covering her mouth.
Her face was flushed bright red with excitement about something as she hurried toward Hyun-min and Ye-ji.
What was she so worked up about this time?
“The competition!”
…The competition?
Ye-ji instinctively pulled out her phone to check for new messages.
“I saw it on the way here—the Preliminary Round Pass results for the one you entered! They moved up the announcement date……!”
Check it, hurry!
Without time for greetings, Da-hye’s urgent prodding made Ye-ji open her email.
Sure enough, there was a new message waiting. With trembling hands, she opened it.
“What happened?”
Unable to contain her curiosity, Da-hye leaned in and looked at Ye-ji’s phone screen.
The email was written in French.
Da-hye reached over and turned on the automatic translation function.
[Congratulations on your Preliminary Round Pass.]
The first line of the message.
After reading it, Da-hye couldn’t make a scene in the café and instead shook Ye-ji’s arm frantically.
Her reaction said it all.
Hyun-min, who had been frozen with a coffee cup in his hand, finally relaxed and let out a quiet laugh.
“Hey, congrats. So now you just need to send the actual work to France.”
“Right, anyway thanks… Wait. Stop shaking me…!”
Ye-ji, jostled by Da-hye’s excitement, finally managed to pull away.
But seeing her friend celebrate as if it were her own achievement made Ye-ji’s mood soar too.
One step, and then another.
The certainty that she was moving forward made her heart race.
“Want me to lend you a box for packing?”
I have a 20-sized international shipping box at home.
At Hyun-min’s offer, Ye-ji nodded.
“Then I owe you.”
“So now you don’t have to worry about that—just focus on the Seohwawon exhibition, right?”
Da-hye snatched the strawberry latte Ye-ji had been drinking and took a sip.
Well, that was true, but……
“Why did they suddenly move up the date, though?”
Even with online submission, the sudden change seemed odd to Ye-ji.
“You don’t think there were too few entries, do you?”
“No way—it’s Montblanc, after all.”
Da-hye’s reflexive denial rang hollow even to her own ears.
Even if judging finished early, there was no real reason to move up the announcement date……
“……Could it really be……?”
Moving up the Preliminary Round announcement by a whole week was quite unprecedented.
Da-hye trailed off, her own suspicions lingering.
Hyun-min cracked one of the remaining ice cubes in his cup with his teeth and shrugged.
“Anyway, all you need to do is place, right? Fewer competitors would actually be a win.”
Ye-ji nodded at his point.
“That’s true.”
She was just a participant, after all.
All that was left was to wait for the final results.
***
Paris, France. Montblanc.
The sudden acceleration of the competition’s preliminary review announcement had thrown the office into chaos.
“Yes. The review finished faster than expected.”
“Exactly. If anything, we had more submissions than in previous years.”
The Curator watched the phones ringing off the hook and sighed.
It was unprecedented, unheard of.
Even when judging finished early, results were normally announced on schedule.
“Excellent works come every year, but this year is unusual, I’ll admit.”
As an assistant sorted through the submission files, the Curator sighed once more.
“…….”
“But the schedule change… it really was because of this work, wasn’t it?”
The competition received such a flood of diverse submissions.
With no specific submission criteria and only age restrictions, the range of work was vast—
from hopeful amateurs just testing the waters to skilled artists prompting the question of why they’d bother entering.
“Don’t speak carelessly like that.”
The Curator gave the assistant a mild warning, though he didn’t deny it.
[Ye-ji Lee – Ascending]
The work bearing the unfamiliar East Asian name carried an unusual quality.
Despite being a photograph, it showed remarkable finesse.
Brightness, contrast, and everything else.
Beyond simple image quality, the photograph itself revealed how meticulously the artist had attended to every detail.
“Ye…ji? Is that how you read it?”
The moment the Director saw that work,
he suddenly insisted on seeing the actual piece and pushed the schedule up.
Of course, this student’s work was excellent.
Distinctive, fresh, with a subject matter that carried youthful, earnest weight.
Not lightweight, yet not overdone—perfectly suited to a youth competition.
Where from, through what means, and how far does one wish to ascend?
That work, radiating hope and passion, certainly had something that touched the heart.
But… was that all?
The Curator thought the Director was being whimsical, but there was nothing to be done.
When the Director gave an order, you followed it.
“At any rate, we’ll decide once we see the actual pieces.”
***
Was break normally this hectic?
Ye-ji, returning home late, sat vacantly on her bed staring at a blank canvas.
Though a month remained before school resumed, time felt perpetually short.
In another life, her situation would’ve been no different from Da-hye’s.
University admission as the sole objective.
She would’ve spent countless hours in various hagwons, focused only on that goal and good grades.
“…….”
Of course, that path wasn’t wrong, but for Ye-ji it wasn’t right either.
She had more things she wanted to paint, and she had no real interest in others’ standards.
Spending time with friends and family in daily life.
Beyond that, one day wasn’t long enough for work dedicated solely to her art.
University and grades were merely secondary.
‘……People would call it annoying, a top student doing this.’
Perhaps this accomplishment itself came from having no excessive ambition.
Swish—
Ye-ji’s brush swept across the white canvas.
Somewhat stiff crimson oil paint cracked and smudged across the surface.
Seohwawon had attracted a younger crowd than she’d expected.
A work that could captivate them—one that would spark the desire to own it.
With habitual motions, a small peony bloom appeared at the edge of the canvas.
The cracked paint was rendered as scattering petals.
On the white canvas.
A single small flower.
Suddenly, Ye-ji tilted the canvas and pressed it flush against her room’s wall.
Like most homes, Ye-ji’s was wallpapered entirely in white.
From a distance under the same lighting, the white canvas and white wallpaper merged seamlessly into one.
‘…Most houses and buildings these days have white walls anyway.’
Even when accent points were used, white remained the overwhelming preference.
The wall where she’d exhibit was also pristine white……
“…….”
Ye-ji immediately grabbed her phone and began searching for something.
And the next morning, she rushed out first thing.
She visited several art supply shops she’d found the night before and acquired what she needed: a small square plywood board no bigger than her palm.

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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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