The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 55

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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 55.
The Special Class unfolded along an altogether different course than the regular students’ lessons.
Even when midterm exams began, the pattern remained unchanged.
Special Class students took their exams in the morning like everyone else, then gathered in the Special Class during the afternoon.
Ye Ji moved a bit later than usual today, having lost track of time chatting with Da Hye.
As she hurried to open the Practice Room door, Ye Ji froze in place.
“……What is this?”
The moment the door opened, she saw Kang Hyeok.
And he was pressing wet tissues over his eyes……
“Wahhh…….”
Watching Kang Hyeok sob like his heart was breaking, Ye Ji rolled her eyes in bewilderment.
Why was he crying?
Yu Ra, sighing with an expression of exasperation, spoke up.
“A passage from the Korean exam was supposedly sad.”
Ah.
Ye Ji couldn’t suppress the laughter that burst from her the moment she understood.
Here was this massive, scatterbrained person weeping over it like that.
At the sound of Ye Ji’s laughter, Kang Hyeok swept the tissues away and protested.
“Hey, Yu Ra. Are you heartless?! How could you read that and not cry?!”
Following the exchange between Yu Ra and Kang Hyeok, Ye Ji giggled as she headed toward the easel.
There were only three of them in the Practice Room.
Had Hyun Ah finally decided not to come?
While thinking this, Kang Hyeok asked Ye Ji a question.
“How did your exam go?”
“Not badly, I think.”
Yu Ra, showing interest in the conversation between Kang Hyeok and Ye Ji, asked a question of her own.
After exchanging a few casual remarks, class time arrived.
Young entered through the front door with her usual familiarity.
But instead of her normal cheerfulness, her face bore an expression of considerable distress.
And behind her came Hyun Ah, her face flushed crimson and wearing a mask.
Before anyone could ask why, Young spoke up, her tone almost beseeching.
“You guys, please talk Hyun Ah out of this! She can’t possibly attend class in this condition!”
When they heard this, they realized Hyun Ah’s state was far from normal.
Though the mask covered more than half her face, her eyes were distinctly reddened.
Unlike Kang Hyeok’s tear-streaked face, the flushed appearance came from fever.
And though she seemed to be holding it back, there were small, stifled coughs escaping.
It was clear she had come down with a severe cold.
‘……Surely not….’
Ye Ji pressed her forehead as she recalled Hyun Ah walking in the downpour from the previous day.
She’d thought the warming weather would keep it from causing trouble.
But it seemed the cold had caught up with her anyway.
She should have just told Dad and gotten a ride instead of all this independence nonsense!
“It’s… it’s okay. I want to attend class….”
Hyun Ah spoke in a voice completely hoarsened by the cold, moving hesitantly toward her seat.
As Hyun Ah passed beside her, Ye Ji immediately asked.
“…Are you really okay?”
Hyun Ah answered with an awkward smile as she met Ye Ji’s gaze.
She had never been particularly quick or fluent in her speech even on normal days.
But now, even when speaking short sentences, she seemed breathless and strained.
“……I’m not really, but… I was worried if I didn’t come… you might misunderstand….”
Was she here because of her earlier remark about leaving the Special Class?
But even a single day of rest would hardly have seemed strange.
The girl was barely standing — what did a missed day matter?
Had her skeptical expression been so obvious?
Hyun Ah added, almost in self-defense.
“And… I really wanted to attend class too…….”
Hyun Ah pushed the mask further up her face and spoke in a murmur.
At the sight, Kang Hyeok, unaware of the backstory, suddenly grinned and spoke.
“It rained last night, didn’t it? Did you catch a cold walking around in it because of Young’s artwork?”
Late night, falling rain. Freedom within it.
At Kang Hyeok’s words, this time it was Young who looked more startled.
“What? You’re saying it’s my fault? It’s not, right? It’s not?!”
At Young’s question, Hyun Ah lowered her head and avoided her gaze.
Even for her, the situation seemed confusing to process.
Just yesterday, Hyun Ah had been a student wanting to quit.
But overnight, she had transformed completely.
Now she was passionate enough to insist on attending class even while ailing and feverish.
“It’s too extreme….”
Compared to America, she’d thought Korean students were docile.
Young stood momentarily stunned by the shock before collecting herself.
In any case, a change of heart overnight was not necessarily a bad sign.
“Anyway, fine. Good.”
If that’s what she wants, there’s nothing to be done about it.
“So then, shall we get started?”
***
That day’s class continued after Young eventually sent Hyun Ah home partway through, when her condition worsened.
Fortunately, after a day of illness, Hyun Ah recovered completely and was able to rejoin class normally the following day.
And so the evaluation period passed in a flash.
The Special Class, which had started at the end of the first semester, was ostensibly a Pilot Program concept.
Partly to accommodate the demanding instructor who was difficult to recruit.
Partly to verify that the privileges and various other mechanisms were working properly — a test concept.
But for those involved, it was far more than a simple class that could be dismissed with such explanations.
Only two days remained before the break.
The classes conducted in that time were remarkably varied.
One day, noting that the weather was fine, Young suddenly took them all out to visit an exhibition.
Since they hadn’t decided on any particular show beforehand, the experience was all the more diverse.
The galleries large and small in Insadong ranged from the utterly mediocre to surprisingly fine works.
Sometimes examining wrong answers and finding out why they were wrong turned out to be a worthwhile approach too.
On another day, all five of them practiced Sculpture together, working with clay.
Ye Ji had only experienced Sculpture through Head Sculpting in class before, so it was quite an enjoyable time.
Of course, the actual results were fairly lamentable….
‘With more time and some experience, it might turn out decent.’
For something she’d only done a few times, it really wasn’t that bad.
Only ten classes in total.
Yet through them, she had learned new experiences and diverse ways of viewing artworks.
Young had claimed she wasn’t cut out to be a teacher, but Ye Ji found her teaching method quite appealing.
And now, before the break began.
Young proposed that they create one final piece for this semester, anticipating the next term.
“……Are you serious?”
“Yeah… yeah…….”
“Ahahaha.”
Standing before a massive Plywood Canvas.
Young and four students gathered closely around it.
Yu Ra’s cool question, Hyun Ah’s startled voice, and Young’s laughter intermingled.
Ye Ji held up a large brush, her expression confused.
“Why? Don’t you like it?”
What Young proposed as the final class of the semester was a collaborative work by all five.
And the theme was, rather unexpectedly.
‘A Ruined Work’
Young stated it in exactly those terms.
Her intention was for all five to thoroughly wreck the canvas together.
“You’re drawing too well. Try scribbling it up more carelessly.”
Kang Hyeok snatched the brush from the bewildered Ye Ji and began wildly smearing paint.
Always having to do well.
For those gripped by that compulsion, being told to make a mess was a novel experience.
“I only drew a single line….”
At Ye Ji’s aggrieved voice, Young suddenly dipped her fingers in paint and began rubbing it on.
Her careless action splattered paint onto her clothes.
Even though it was Acrylic Paint, once it stuck anywhere, it naturally wouldn’t come off easily.
Kang Hyeok asked in alarm.
“Teacher, isn’t that outfit you’re wearing a luxury brand?”
“It is? I’m calling this macajoux.”
Macajoux — the act of drawing new pictures on luxury garments to reform them into unique forms for oneself alone.
Though that was certainly different from accidentally getting paint on your clothes while drawing….
“…….”
Ye Ji immediately, without a second thought, dipped her fingers in paint as well.
And then promptly began rubbing them across the empty spaces of the canvas.
Without considering the color combinations, her fingertips left imprints mixing purple and green carelessly.
Watching Young and Ye Ji, Hyun Ah quietly smiled, set down her brush, and dipped her fingers in paint too.
“…….”
This was hardly some sort of childish sensory play.
As the three of them continued, Yu Ra hesitated.
Then Kang Hyeok began wildly rubbing yellow paint across the canvas with a large brush, over the handprints the others had left.
A primordial feast of colors.
Points, lines, and planes intersecting without calculation or plan.
As Yu Ra took in the brilliance contained within that irregularity, she too set down her brush.
And with a somewhat unfamiliar feeling, she rubbed paint with her fingertips.
Slightly cool, slippery, moist to the touch.
Above all, the unfamiliar sensation of a material that had always felt familiar burrowed from her fingertips into her mind.
‘……It might actually be better than expected.’
Over the canvas beginning to fill with primary colors, Yu Ra rubbed white paint.
The incompletely dried paints began to blend together.
“Oh no! My blouse!”
“…It got on my necktie too….”
From carelessly smearing paint with both hands and brush, it naturally splattered onto their clothes as well.
Though somewhat startled.
“Anyway, how much longer will I even wear a summer uniform?”
Yu Ra spoke with a calm voice instead, rubbing her open palm broadly across the canvas.
The white paint curved smoothly, tracing the arc of her arm across the canvas.
How long had it been since they painted like this, just playing around?
Ye Ji, pressing texture into the increasingly thick layers of paint, replied.
“Sorry, but I still have to wear mine next year.”
“Ah…… right…….”
At Ye Ji’s words, Hyun Ah belatedly looked at her with concern.
Of course, Ye Ji’s uniform already had paint on it from somewhere, splattered by someone at some point.
“I think it’s already done for?”
At Kang Hyeok’s giggling voice, Ye Ji laughed too.
The stains that wouldn’t wash out even with laundering might become flaws, but somehow today’s memory seemed like it would remain as a keepsake rather than a blemish.
***
At that very moment.
In Paris, France, at the Montravaux Gallery.
The second round of Judging for the youth competition.
Among them, the Judging of the first group was well underway.
Ten of the twenty finalists had gathered at the gallery and were creating their works in an open space.
The second round of Judging was straightforward.
Evaluating the entire process of on-site work.
It was essentially an assessment of whether the capability demonstrated in existing works was entirely their own, without another’s hand.
“That child, correct?”
“Yes. Certainly….”
Even after selecting twenty outstanding students, there was always one who stood out among them.
A Blonde Boy was capturing the attention of the Judging panel.
Despite the somewhat cool weather, he was sweating profusely as he poured rough brushstrokes across a massive canvas.
The somewhat parched paint cracked and scraped across the canvas.
Rather than drawn, it was more accurate to say the paint was rubbed — a touch close to the raw.
From the thickly smeared, rough paint emanated a wild crudeness, yet simultaneously a kind of purity.
A young and passionate emerging talent.
Sensory and instinctive texture that suited those words exactly filled the canvas.
“And he’s only seventeen years old this year?”
The structure of the Judging venue was hardly ordinary.
A two-story hall with high ceilings.
The students worked on the first floor while the panel observed from the second.
Their quiet conversation would not have been audible from that distance, yet they spoke cautiously to one another.
Among the vivid, nearly harsh colors.
The Blonde Boy wiped the sweat beading on his forehead.
He seemed to have already forgotten the fact that those around him were observing.
His eyes, completely immersed in the work, looked almost fierce.
“It’s almost a done deal.”
At the voice of someone regarding the boy’s work, another opinion layered over it.
“But then, in the second group, isn’t there that child? The one from Korea.”
“Yes… what was it?”
The judges stumbled over the unfamiliar Korean name.
They might not have been certain of the exact pronunciation, but at least they could confirm they were thinking of the same person.
Then small murmurs spread among the panel members.
Selecting the final twenty had been difficult enough, but perhaps the final decision would prove an equally challenging process.
Voices mingling expectation with concern flowed out.
“……It won’t be easy.”

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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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