The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 57

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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 57.
When the account information appeared, the first thought was that the name listed on the profile looked familiar.
And then, her eyes caught on a number that seemed suspicious.
‘Am I seeing this correctly?’
The follower count was remarkably, strikingly unusual.
When she scrolled down slightly, works with rough brushstrokes came into view.
The gallery was dazzling, filled with countless works and their various stages of creation.
Looking at the boy again, he simply nodded calmly.
“Yeah, that’s right. That’s my account.”
Confirming it was his account, he apologized for surprising her once more.
“Hey, Ethan!”
At that moment, someone calling out to Ethan could be heard.
“Your work is really great. I’ll send you a DM.”
With those words, Ethan rose from his seat.
Watching him leave, Ye Ji found herself thinking.
All twenty finalists of the Montblanc Competition were probably staying in this hotel.
Especially today, two groups’ schedules overlapped.
If this encounter with a peer—a promising painter her age—meant…?
Ethan also seemed to have realized something, as he stopped in his tracks.
“Wait.”
“Could it be.”
Both Ethan and Ye Ji spoke at the same moment, looking at each other.
But they didn’t say anything more after that.
It was enough to understand.
They were clearly competitors in the competition.
He laughed softly and waved his hand.
“See you again.”
With that brief greeting, he was gone.
It felt like a whirlwind had swept through, leaving her momentarily disoriented, but Ye Ji decided to finish her meal first.
Back in her room, after resting for a while, Ye Ji set out sightseeing with her father.
They took photos in front of the Eiffel Tower, visited good restaurants.
After a hearty lunch, they arrived at a café with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower.
Ye Ji was spectacularly failing to adjust to the jet lag.
“…My goodness.”
Ye Ji was desperately forcing her half-closed eyes open, tearing into a croissant.
Her father found her appearance amusing and quietly snapped a few photos.
“Ugh… I think I’m going to die of sleepiness…”
Still, the food went into her mouth…
Ye Ji mumbled this while pushing bread into her mouth half-asleep.
“Haha. I’ll have to show this to your mother later.”
“…Don’t.”
Her appearance was amusing and endearing, but only for a moment.
Her father, soon feeling sympathy for his daughter, asked her.
“If you’re that sleepy, shouldn’t we just head back and let you get some rest?”
At her father’s question, Ye Ji hesitated for a moment, but soon shook her head.
Two days remained until the Second Round of Judging.
She couldn’t afford to be drowsy while working on her piece, so she needed to adjust her sleep schedule.
But at the same time, it would be wasteful to exhaust herself with sightseeing right now.
“Rather than that… let’s go to Montblanc.”
Ye Ji made the suggestion to her father.
It wasn’t something she absolutely had to do before the Second Round of Judging began, but she felt like she should visit beforehand.
Since that had been the purpose of coming to Paris in the first place, her father readily agreed.
Ye Ji took a light deep breath and looked out at the Paris streets again.
She began walking alone through streets both familiar and strange.
***
Basically, since galleries change their exhibitions each season, the works on display differ from one exhibition hall to another.
But Montblanc had one permanent display that never changed.
Catherine’s Cliffs of Etretat.
She had confirmed it clearly online, so that work should still be hanging in the gallery.
She felt somewhat hesitant to go, if she was being honest.
The thought of the painting from her past life remaining there gave her an odd feeling.
‘I can’t avoid it forever anyway.’
Only by seeing it directly could she acknowledge the feeling and shake it off.
By the time she arrived at Montblanc.
After some consideration, Ye Ji decided to take a slightly longer route.
She didn’t want to pass through that street where the accident had happened before.
“I just want to look around the area a bit more.”
That was the excuse she gave her father.
After walking through the much-changed streets and taking in the sights.
Ye Ji finally came to a stop before Montblanc.
‘…It’s been expanded.’
The Montblanc in her old memories wasn’t this large.
It stood in the same location she remembered, but its appearance was completely different.
Given the absence of buildings nearby, it seemed they had merged with the galleries on either side.
‘…It’s changed a lot.’
The leftmost building appeared to be where the competition was taking place, as access was restricted.
Ye Ji turned her direction toward the main hall where works by other artists were currently on display.
The gallery, with the original Montblanc building at its center and the two adjacent buildings connected on either side, now had an enormous scale.
The work currently on exhibition was a solo show by an artist who had been doing very well recently.
The paintings hanging in the exhibition hall had red stickers announcing sales affixed in a row.
Despite this, there were quite a few visitors in the gallery.
‘…Hyperrealism works.’
The paintings, which looked like photographs, were so meticulous they were almost unreal.
Beyond the main exhibition hall came a special exhibition space.
In the special space, twenty paintings from the competitors currently in the Second Round of Judging were displayed in a showcase format.
In the circular exhibition space, twenty works were laid out in alphabetical order by name.
Ye Ji looked at her own work, which she was seeing again after a long time.
The works of the other students were certainly of high quality.
Some were bold and unconventional, others possessed clear beauty.
Ye Ji’s work stood out distinctly for its mysterious atmosphere among them all.
Though there were other Asian artists, having only one work with an East Asian aesthetic seemed to emphasize it even more.
And.
[Ethan Miller]
Crestview High School
A caption with name and affiliation listed together.
Ethan’s work had very rough brushstrokes, just as she’d seen on social media.
More precisely, his work seemed composed of planes and combinations of planes rather than lines.
Extreme abstract painting.
A painting style where paint was roughly applied and smudged with something like a wide paint brush.
It conveyed a raw wildness that was in sharp contrast to Ye Ji’s delicate, emotionally evocative work.
There was a sense of instinctive purity within it.
Though difficult to articulate, there was an unmistakable, compelling charm that drew people’s gaze.
“…”
An unpolished gemstone.
That phrase seemed perfectly apt—he appeared to be someone with natural talent.
The color combinations, placement, proportions, and density applied with what looked like a broad brush.
Everything was oddly captivating.
The word “overwhelming” was the right way to describe this work.
It was definitely a work that deserved the title of a world-class competition.
‘Quite impressive.’
Though Ethan’s work stood out most, there were many other excellent pieces.
A Japanese artist, Kobayashi Ai, who used repetition of color and line to create subtle Optical Illusion effects.
Lucas Popana, a French artist whose delicate expressiveness captured the eye.
The fact that she would compete again alongside these artists gave her a strange thrill.
She hoped the ambiguous two days would pass quickly.
She wanted to start on a new piece with a new theme immediately.
Following the well-designed flow, the exhibition viewing soon ended.
“Ye Ji, your father is just going to the restroom for a moment.”
The time spent in the gallery was longer than expected.
Ye Ji nodded at her father’s words.
“I’ll wait out front.”
Back at the main entrance.
While waiting for her father to return, Ye Ji reflexively looked at the left building where the competition had been taking place.
“…Looks like it’s already finished.”
While she was viewing the gallery, the first group’s work session had apparently ended.
The quiet exhibition space had its lights off, with only the security system blinking.
A notice stating that the building was closed due to the competition was posted on the door.
“Hey.”
Ye Ji, who was looking into the darkened building, didn’t initially think the voice was calling her.
But soon, realizing it was a voice she recognized, she turned around.
“Who are you waiting for?”
It was Ethan.
He looked slightly flushed and excited compared to when she’d seen him this morning.
“Oh, just a moment…”
Ye Ji answered in brief English and shook her head.
Just curious, with nothing urgent to discuss, Ye Ji asked in English.
“First group?”
It probably wasn’t the best pronunciation, but it shouldn’t be too hard to understand.
At her question, he nodded.
“I saw your work from the First Round of Judging in the gallery too. It made quite an impression. Wish we’d been in the same group. Too bad about that.”
Just as Ye Ji had been interested in his work, he seemed to feel the same way.
Ethan, speaking considerate and gentle English as if to accommodate her.
Ye Ji answered him in English as well.
“We’ll be able to see each other’s work once everything is finished. And maybe, being in different groups could actually be better.”
At that, he made a confused expression.
Had the meaning been properly conveyed?
With a confused look, he asked back.
“Different groups is better? What do you mean?”
“If we were in the same group, we might influence each other.”
Ye Ji answered him promptly.
The two of them had quite contrasting styles.
Because of that, there would certainly be things worth learning from and getting inspiration from in each other’s talent.
“…”
Isn’t learning good?
Seeing Ethan’s expression as if he thought so, Ye Ji continued.
“But you shouldn’t rush to learn anything.”
Being influenced by someone else’s work in real time while working on your own piece was not a good thing.
That would be contamination rather than absorption.
It was the sort of thing that creators often mistook—the difference between Plagiarism and Homage.
Whatever you learn needs time to be digested slowly.
So it would be better to see each other’s work cleanly, after everything is finished, for a more positive influence.
Ethan nodded with an expression of neither full understanding nor complete confusion.
Now was the time to preserve anticipation for each other.
“Would you like to have a drink and chat for a bit?”
Ye Ji was curious about where his talent and skill came from.
Having just finished a piece, Ethan was in a very excited state.
“Sure, but I’m waiting for my father right now.”
When she added that he’d be coming soon and they should hang out together, Ethan made a subtle expression.
“Is that person behind you?”
Ethan’s hand pointed behind Ye Ji.
When she turned to look, her father was standing there with a distinctly displeased expression.
“What’s this? Who is this guy? What does he want?”
“Oh, this is Ethan. He finished his competition piece today. He was in the first group.”
After a brief explanation, she introduced her father to Ethan.
Ethan, picking up on the atmosphere quickly, greeted him in somewhat awkward Korean.
“Hello.”
To Ethan’s greeting, her father responded with a distinctly ambiguous demeanor, as if drawing a line.
“Want to head to a café to chat for a bit?”
Since Ye Ji had suggested it, he couldn’t very well refuse.
But her father’s expression was deeply dissatisfied.
A blonde boy with green eyes.
With the conventionally handsome features of a Western man.
There was no way her father could view such a boy behaving familiarly toward his daughter favorably.
Her father positioned himself firmly between them, his eyes full of caution.
“Dad, you’re being excessive…!”
“What! Who knows what that guy is thinking?”
Ethan couldn’t understand the conversation between father and daughter, but he grasped the nuance.
Watching Ethan chuckle to himself, Ye Ji felt even more embarrassed.
As they walked toward the café in that awkward atmosphere, a fact she had briefly forgotten came suddenly into her field of vision.
Before she could prepare herself mentally.
A work filling an entire wall suddenly came into view.
“…”
Her old painting.
It was there.

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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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