The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 44

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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 44.
“……In just one day?”
Da-hye spoke in a bewildered voice.
She’d seen him Friday night with no word of departure, yet he’d left the country Saturday morning.
Ye-ji was naturally taken aback as well.
When she sent a text message asking him to stay in touch, his reply came half a day later.
[Uncle Seong-su: You can set your schedule however works for you^^]
Still, since it was a prior arrangement, she wanted to align her schedule with his beforehand if he had one set.
Even to Ye-ji’s request, Seong-su answered at ease.
[Uncle Seong-su: Really, it’s fine^^]
[Uncle Seong-su: I operate on no plan, which is my plan^^]
That response came back, and after that, he didn’t make contact—too busy, perhaps.
“Well….”
Da-hye trailed off, glancing at Se-hui’s expression.
Ye-ji had already mentioned that Seong-su seemed like a person with a few screws loose.
But wasn’t this a bit too unusual?
Se-hui, who’d been only sipping her coffee, saw Da-hye’s flustered look and nodded.
“It’s okay. My uncle is definitely someone you can’t quite trust, but when it comes to his work, how should I put it….”
Se-hui squinted as she searched for words but ultimately couldn’t find the right ones.
“Anyway, you’ll understand once you see it later. It’s not that he’s actually so unplanned.”
Se-hui stated decisively that his work could be trusted.
Her words left Ye-ji more puzzled than before, but if it was fine, that was a relief.
She couldn’t wait any longer, so she’d already sent Montblanc a response saying all dates were available after the break.
Since she’d already sent that response, it might be too late to take it back now.
“Right, anyway. We’ll manage it well enough if we coordinate.”
She wouldn’t be in France for the entire break anyway.
With that thought, Ye-ji turned her attention back to the Korean passage she’d been reading.
***
The Midterm Exam was over.
More precisely, the general subject tests had only just ended.
What remained now was the Practical Exam.
“I’m so anxious….”
On the day of the Practical Exam.
Under clear skies, Da-hye lay draped across her desk with a gloomy expression.
Da-hye had done remarkably well on this exam.
As far as general subjects went, she’d scored just a shade higher than Ye-ji.
But precisely because of that, she seemed even more tense.
She had no confidence in scoring higher than Ye-ji in the practical portion.
Wasn’t it more realistic if both of them got perfect scores?
Da-hye’s attitude had transferred her anxiety to Ye-ji as well.
“You keep doing this and now I’m feeling pressured too.”
“Right, right. Just let it go.”
When Hyun-min chimed in playfully to Ye-ji’s comment, Da-hye quickly shot him a glare.
“You’re the one giving up!”
“Hey, I’m not that bad, you know?!”
As the two of them started bickering again, the tension seemed to ease somewhat.
After all, drawing was always about drawing what you see, but there was a reason the nerves were heightened this time.
This exam was Portrait Watercolor, as Da-hye had prepared.
The difference was that they’d be drawing from an actual model sitting in front of them.
Since she’d been dirt poor in her past life, it was something she’d never experienced before.
Though perhaps such thoughts didn’t quite fit the testing situation.
‘My hands are shaking….’
Ye-ji’s nervousness and trembling resembled anticipation.
The professionally hired model was steady, and the exam period was as grueling as always.
Ye-ji too had no choice but to maximize her concentration during the allotted four hours faced with an unfamiliar task.
Even with a professional model, there were limits to how long a human could hold the exact same pose.
Completely different conditions from drawing from a photograph.
Moreover, the model took a ten-minute break every fifty minutes, as any human would.
“Ah….”
After each break, muffled sighs of frustration echoed from various corners of the room.
Nearly identical, yet since the model was human, the angles of hands and arms inevitably shifted.
Here the difference between someone who merely copies and someone with anatomical understanding became starkly apparent.
The ability to connect different areas naturally even as the pose changed wasn’t merely in the realm of imagination.
‘Maybe I should study anatomy too….’
In Ye-ji’s case, extensive experience had given her a deep understanding of the human form.
In her past life’s childhood, she’d even drawn portraits in the park for pocket money to make ends meet.
Driven by survival rather than practice, she’d inadvertently accumulated the experience that gave her this anatomical understanding.
Lost in concentration, several breaks had passed without her noticing.
“Time! Everyone, wrap up and submit your work. Good job.”
The instructor’s signal came to end the exam.
Ye-ji, who’d already completed the main composition and was adding fine details, set down her brush.
Her classmates finished their work amid groans and sighs of relief.
“…….”
The moment she finished submitting, Ye-ji checked Da-hye’s drawing beside hers.
Fortunately, without any major mistakes, she’d drawn exactly as she’d practiced.
The form and composition even seemed more refined than usual, perfect to the eye.
“How is it?”
To the anxious Da-hye, Ye-ji gave a thumbs-up.
Her friend’s face brightened with relief, and Ye-ji rose from her seat with her.
The collected works lay spread across the floor, awaiting the teachers’ unsparing evaluation.
There was no thought of maintaining top rankings in school overall, nor any greed about it.
But at least in the practical portion, she hoped to be first.
She’d given her genuine effort, and she wanted the results to match that sincerity.
“Anyway, the exam’s done! Want to go to Conora? Today is….”
Da-hye’s cheerful voice trailed off as she stepped out of the Studio.
“…?”
Following behind her, Ye-ji wondered what was wrong and looked over Da-hye’s shoulder.
Standing there was Kang Yu-ra.
“Hi.”
The greeting, delivered with a composed, expressionless face, was fairly brazen.
“Oh…. Yes. Hello.”
The unexpected appearance startled her, so Ye-ji replied with an awkward greeting.
During the last sketch class, Yu-ra had been quite conspicuous.
She’d even shown up at Ye-ji’s classroom downstairs, so everyone knew Yu-ra felt competitive toward the junior.
Thanks to that, classmates leaving the Studio all glanced this way.
“Why does this senior keep coming around? You’re not even interested, and it’s awkward….”
Da-hye whispered to Ye-ji.
Though her words might not have carried far, her hostile attitude was unmistakable.
At Da-hye’s comment, Ye-ji tilted her head.
She wasn’t entirely disinterested, if she was honest.
She had no intention of pretending otherwise or playing it cool.
“Is there something you needed?”
“I was curious how you’d drawn it, so I came to look.”
Yu-ra stated her business plainly and peered through the Studio window.
Though dozens of drawings lay scattered about, finding Ye-ji’s wasn’t difficult.
“……The one next to it—is that yours?”
Yu-ra spoke in an even tone toward Da-hye, whose eyes had sharpened.
Da-hye, not expecting the attention to turn to her, answered in a flustered voice.
“Huh? Oh, yes. …But why?”
“It’s decent.”
To Da-hye’s hostile tone, Yu-ra seemed largely unmoved.
Her calm, toneless voice gazed once more at the drawing inside the Studio.
“I’ve seen it, so I’m going.”
With her business concluded, Yu-ra left immediately.
Da-hye, looking utterly dumbfounded, tilted her head in bewilderment.
It was certain that Yu-ra felt competitive toward Ye-ji.
But whether her feelings were negative and sinister enough to call it antagonism remained questionable.
“Whether we should be relieved she’s so blunt about it or what, I don’t know….”
“We should be relieved she’s blunt about it.”
Hyun-min interjected into Da-hye’s murmuring with this addition.
“That senior is unusual and calculating, sure, but she doesn’t seem like someone who’s twisted.”
Where had he picked up that conclusion?
When Ye-ji gave him a look that said ‘you’re the weirder one here,’ he shrugged.
“I know a lot of upperclassmen.”
He seemed well-connected.
“From what I heard, that senior’s family background is pretty good too. She’s been obsessed with art since childhood, so apparently she doesn’t have many friends or whatever.”
Obsessed with art, not many friends.
For some reason, Ye-ji felt a kinship with that description.
Though lately, it seemed people were gathering around her more.
But before she recalled her past life—what had things been like?
Fixated on the single thought of wanting to draw well, obsessed, trapped within one wall, anxiously pacing.
That’s how she’d lived.
“What about you?”
To Hyun-min’s question, Ye-ji spoke her thoughts readily.
“If the chance came up, I’d like to properly see how skilled that senior is.”
Yu-ra was the type to compete through Color Expression.
Since Ye-ji was the type to express through light as her focus, they didn’t overlap completely, but the two shared a subtle intersection in their approach.
“The chance will come.”
The semester hadn’t ended yet.
There was still time before that senior graduated, so surely another such opportunity would arise before long.
***
“Sigh….”
After the Practical Exam, in the Studio.
Sighs from the Western Art Department teachers echoed continuously.
The floor of the Studio was spread with drawings submitted by students.
For grading, the students’ work lay arranged with clinical precision.
“Let’s separate what to exclude first.”
“Yes, we’ll set those aside and arrange only the ones needing further discussion.”
Looking over the drawings, the teachers began scoring rapidly.
In a situation with set criteria and objectives, standing out too much wasn’t favorable.
Those using bold techniques—unexpected mosaic effects, pointillism—were mercilessly eliminated with low scores.
The safe ones naturally received safe scores in return.
Then came the crucial line for high scores.
“……I think we know whose this is without even asking.”
The teachers’ eyes came to rest on one drawing.
Everyone had drawn the same subject from the same conditions.
The situation called for judging skill through subtle differences.
Tired eyes felt suddenly relieved in an instant.
Pale watercolor hues that spread softly following the natural direction of light.
Yet the boundaries of shadow remained perfectly, decisively separated.
“Is this from that, um… Montblanc?”
“Montblanc, yes?”
“Ah, yes. That’s the one who got accepted to their contest, right?”
Ye-ji’s drawing stood unmistakably apart from the others, which felt merely like a one-shade difference.
The form of the human figure without discomfort was important, but several drawings matched in that regard alone.
“……Park Da-hye? Was she always this good?”
“She got close to Ye-ji, and lately her skills have improved a lot because of that.”
Placed side by side, both drawings excelled.
But Ye-ji’s held one distinctly different point.
“There’s emotion in Ye-ji’s drawing.”
“A blank expression doesn’t mean there’s no emotion at all.”
True, the model had maintained an expressionless face throughout.
Because of that, all the drawings carried a slightly cold, dull feeling.
By contrast, Ye-ji’s held a subtle warmth and liveliness.
It wasn’t easy to find vitality in the eyes of someone sitting with a blank stare.
“It seems to be because of how the sunlight is expressed….”
“It’s definitely different, that’s for sure.”
Exactly where was the difference?
The teachers tried their own analysis, but there were limits.
After all, they were teachers, not critics.
“Anyway, this time there’s no particular disagreement. Shall we finalize the grades like this?”
When the department head summarized, no teacher objected.
Perhaps because there’d been so much controversy over the last semester’s grades?
Everyone wanted to wrap up this uneventful Midterm quickly.
Thanks to that, the grade announcement didn’t take more than a few days.

1st Place: Ye-ji
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8th Place: Da-hye

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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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