The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 26

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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 26.
After school, Hyun Min turned down invitations from friends to play soccer and headed to Ye Ji’s House instead.
By the time the bus carried him to a neighborhood filled with apartments some distance from school, the surroundings had already grown dim.
“I don’t have a separate studio, so everything happens at home—the place is pretty much a mess inside.”
Ye Ji laid groundwork for worry even before they stepped through the door.
She seemed intent on warning him that it would be cramped and inconvenient.
‘Doesn’t look like that small of an apartment, though.’
Hyun Min followed Ye Ji while glancing casually around the neighborhood.
You could generally estimate apartment square footage just by looking at the window sizes in the complex.
For a student from Cheonglim, the place seemed relatively modest, yet solidly middle-class.
“Pardon me.”
He knew her parents were at the company and the house was empty, but Hyun Min entered with a polite greeting anyway.
But after just a few steps past the entrance, he had to stop.
“Honestly, I’m at the point where I just want to ship everything to Seo Hwa Won already.”
Ye Ji flicked on the living room lights with an awkward expression, and before her lay works scattered everywhere.
The living room had been virtually overrun by artwork.
So that was why she’d mentioned the space being tight.
That’s what he’d thought at first.
Hundreds of small pieces spread across the floor.
At eye level, they didn’t quite register all at once in his field of vision.
……
But as the works gradually came into focus, both Hyun Min and Da Hye fell silent.
Plywood Panels the size of a palm of the hand, arranged side by side.
He’d imagined something quaint and somewhat chaotic from her description.
Given Ye Ji’s skill, it wouldn’t be sloppy—but Series Work wasn’t as straightforward as one might think.
Hyun Min, having observed countless artists and works, knew this especially well.
This was a domain accomplished only by experienced practitioners.
Yet she’d pulled this off in such a confined space…?
“Insane……”
Da Hye’s murmur, and Hyun Min agreed.
It truly was work at an insane level.
Still speechless, Hyun Min moved closer to the pieces.
“The title is Four Seasons. That’s what I decided on.”
True to Ye Ji’s words, the work captured all four seasons.
A diverse palette seeming to contain every season of Korea mixed throughout.
These hues blended naturally and fell together as pieces of a series, holding their appeal to the fullest.
What stood out first was the expressive technique using the Aerial/Bird’s-eye View Perspective.
Rather than the realistic linear perspective common in Western painting, this was Eastern perspective expression.
“At this level, it’s not lacking for Seo Hwa Won, right?”
Hyun Min was almost exasperated by Ye Ji’s words.
Lacking? It wasn’t even at a point where one could speak of such things.
More than sufficient—honestly, he felt covetous.
Eastern expressive technique combined with grand scale.
Cherry blossoms and forsythia of a fresh spring blended into cotton candy hues.
Bamboo groves in cool greens that captured summer’s fresh feeling perfectly.
The calm composure of withered reed fields and snow-kissed winter branches, and even bright camellia red.
And fitting the flat Low Aerial Perspective, a small stream flowing across all that landscape.
The gentle, peaceful, beautiful scenery stirred a strange sense of grandeur.
As if one had truly witnessed all four seasons of a Korean mountain in a single moment.
“……Wow…”
As Da Hye’s exclamations continued, Hyun Min remained, still overwhelmed, motionless.
“What do you think?”
Ye Ji asked again, waiting for a response from her silent viewer.
What do I think?
Hyun Min imagined this work hanging on Seo Hwa Won’s wall.
“What do I think! It’s incredible!”
Da Hye responded with an exclamatory tone.
Hundreds of pieces hung at eye level beneath bright lights.
What at first glance felt like one grand work would, the closer one approached, steal the eye with each piece’s delicate detail.
Korea’s four seasons. A flow stitched together like beautiful transitions.
Yet that beauty stems from the changes we experience daily.
The flows we pass through without noticing.
They would make one recall anew the present season and those experienced before.
Viewing the work, Hyun Min understood one thing.
“You planned this?”
“Of course.”
A painting that moves the human heart.
Ye Ji didn’t merely paint well—she knew how to touch emotion.
“And I always paint with sincerity.”
Hearing Ye Ji’s answer, Hyun Min stopped before the spring landscape.
Surely those with more years behind them, more memories and recollection, would linger longest before such work.
That characteristic dreamlike quality was enough to halt one’s steps.
And any season, any scene within would draw one into deeper thought.
The stream flowing from upper left to lower right naturally guided the eye across the entire work.
Even the materials seemed to differ by season.
As if she’d deliberately ensured one couldn’t simply pass by.
All manner of materials and their diverse hues seemed to absorb the viewer’s attention completely.
‘…I want it.’
Hyun Min genuinely felt covetous of the work.
Though he studied art himself, Hyun Min believed he wasn’t cut out to be a painter.
Watching works like this, he noticed his feeling of emotion reached toward possessiveness rather than jealousy or inspiration.
“Are all of these dry?”
“Some of the Oil Paintings still aren’t fully dry, so you can’t touch them.”
“Either way, it’s really incredible.”
Da Hye and Ye Ji’s chattering voices carried over.
Hyun Min made another full circuit of the works.
During that time, Da Hye continued her exclamations.
“What’s this? It’s not Oil Painting?”
“That’s Mineral Pigments. Eastern painting material.”
“Wow…. You really use everything now. When will I ever work with materials like that?”
“What are you saying? You could use them now if you wanted.”
“I don’t have the time. The time.”
Da Hye couldn’t relax and freely spend her time—not with tutoring taking up her days.
A high school student’s life, racing toward Entrance Examination alone.
In such a life, handling and learning new materials purely out of interest?
That was a luxury, nothing more.
“I envy you. When will I be able to do something like this?”
Da Hye spoke, her voice poised between genuine envy and acknowledgment.
In Hyun Min’s view, Da Hye didn’t lack talent, but she was right.
Unless one reached Ye Ji’s level, half-hearted experimentation was out of the question.
There was reason in the saying that you had to do what everyone else did just to stay middle-of-the-road.
At minimum, not to fall behind.
‘I definitely thought Ye Ji was that type too.’
Since when had things changed?
From some point last semester onward, Ye Ji had transformed completely.
In hindsight, perhaps that fixed framework of entrance exams had been suppressing Ye Ji’s genius.
Maybe her talent revealed itself because she’d chosen to break free from it.
But really, the reason didn’t matter.
Hyun Min was satisfied with the fact that he’d witnessed her genius right beside him.
He’d aimed for art school in the first place because he wanted to directly see and experience the birth and process of diverse arts.
And here was such genius, right next to him.
Moreover, to witness the moment her talent bloomed—he was truly fortunate.
“Anyway, when you have the exhibition, you absolutely have to come see it.”
“Of course! I’m definitely going! I’ll skip hagwon and go!”
Listening to Da Hye and Ye Ji’s exchange, Hyun Min looked over Ye Ji’s works again and again.
Season by season, and piece by piece.
What he saw and what he felt changed with every moment.
After looking at the work for some time, the chattering Da Hye suddenly sat down.
“Wow, I got so excited I’m hungry now…. Ye Ji, let’s order tteokbokki. Tteokbokki!”
“Aren’t you tired of that stuff?”
She ate it all the time, yet couldn’t get enough of that carbohydrate mass.
Though he didn’t understand, when the three of them gathered, Hyun Min was outvoted.
In the end, they ordered spicy, salty delivery food again.
Even after that, Hyun Min couldn’t stop glancing at the work that held his attention, returning to look at it several more times.
***
“We’re heading out~”
“Thanks for the meal and the viewing!”
The early spring night had grown completely dark.
Hyun Min and Da Hye stepped out of Ye Ji’s House.
“See you tomorrow~”
Leaving Ye Ji waving goodbye behind them, Da Hye and Hyun Min walked toward the Subway Station.
“Somehow, I have a feeling Ye Ji is going to make waves before graduation.”
She’d already caused quite a stir even now.
Hyun Min nodded at Da Hye’s words.
Surely she had enough talent to accomplish something far greater than this.
Moreover, the way Ye Ji’s work drew people in was, at its core, her genius as an artist.
She was already forming all manner of connections……
‘Whatever she does, she’ll do it big.’
Hyun Min was certain.
“Hey, aren’t you taking the subway?”
“I’m taking the bus. Go ahead.”
After seeing Da Hye off into the subway, Hyun Min turned back.
Only once his friend’s figure had completely vanished did Hyun Min pull out his phone and call somewhere.
“Yes, sir. I’m at the station right now.”
Shortly after, a car pulled up in front of Hyun Min as if it had been waiting.
A luxury sedan that would be a dream car to some.
“Thank you.”
Hyun Min greeted the driver habitually and got in on the passenger’s side.
“Master. I told you to ride in the back seat.”
“I prefer the front.”
At the Driver’s words, Hyun Min smiled and fastened his seatbelt.
And the photos on his phone.
He scrolled through past works Ye Ji had created.
“The Chairwoman has been thinking about a birthday gift for you lately.”
As the car drove smoothly out onto the road,
the Driver said casually.
After all, his employer was ultimately the Chairwoman, Hyun Min’s mother.
He was considering her sensibilities.
“The Yacht you gave him before is just gathering dust in the warehouse—he’s not interested.”
The Chairwoman was subtly hurt by that.
At the Driver’s added words, Hyun Min could only laugh awkwardly.
‘Mother and her Yacht gifts to a high schooler.’
When and how was he supposed to use that?
Though he belonged to a chaebol family, Hyun Min had zero interest in that lifestyle.
What he was looking at on his phone now was far removed from such excess.
The ten-thousand-blossom piece Ye Ji had created in the Lotus Garden Murders case.
The photo of that work he’d failed to obtain, and Hyun Min spoke.
“There was that piece I tried to buy before.”
He’d attempted to purchase it through a proxy at the time, but ultimately failed.
After all, Ye Ji hadn’t been selling.
She’d mentioned selling only if they caught the criminal.
Nothing but regret remained.
“Since you’re already having works purchased for your education, perhaps another gift would be better.”
The villa in Yangpyeong already had no wall space left with the works Hyun Min had accumulated.
But fundamentally, a chaebol was the sort to casually spend tens of millions on a handbag or watch.
For a Major Corporation Chairwoman like Hyun Min’s mother, purchasing artworks was little different from buying an expensive reference book.
“No. I think I’ll ask for a gift-grade purchase this time.”
But for Hyun Min to ask like that?
The Driver’s expression flickered with curiosity, yet he didn’t press further.
“I’m sure she’ll be pleased if you tell her directly.”
Hyun Min, who’d been declining most proposals from the Chairwoman—insisting he wanted to live like an ordinary high schooler—
If such a request came from him, even the Chairwoman might take personal action.

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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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