The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 59

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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 59.
A few art supply shops.
Ye Ji’s Father, who had accepted it lightly enough, began to regret from the moment they entered the third shop.
Ye Ji could not resist desire, gathering up art materials wherever she went.
Like a squirrel hoarding acorns.
She would need them for the upcoming competition, and since they weren’t available in Korea, he couldn’t bring himself to stop her.
As her father, he found it difficult to understand why a daughter raised without want should be so greedy when it came to art.
It was a puzzle to him.
“You’ll be able to carry all of this, won’t you?”
But Ye Ji herself was already aware of the deficiency that had taken root in her unconscious.
A fragment of memory, however vague—the experience of skipping meals to buy supplies for her work.
That experience was shaping the intense desire she felt now.
Just as Catherine’s past circumstances had enabled her to express something special.
Perhaps the peculiarity that Ye Ji expressed now was also influenced by such emotions, though she didn’t know it.
So Ye Ji did not want to deny her own deficiency and desire.
Beyond all those feelings, what Ye Ji ultimately wanted to express was something positive.
Hope, confidence, possibility—such things were naturally emphasized only when contrasted with elements like deficiency.
“With that in mind, I’m thinking of buying another suitcase.”
At Ye Ji’s words about buying everything she wanted, her father’s face fell.
The Second Round Evaluation was starting tomorrow.
Whether she was nervous about the work or something else, he couldn’t tell.
“……All right, then.”
Still, if that was what she wanted, he didn’t want to stop her.
Given that Ye Ji had been fixated on painting since childhood, even if he didn’t understand it, her behavior wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Besides, they weren’t in financial straits.
He could always give up the new golf club he’d been wanting.
Though he wasn’t a parent who could give his children everything, he wanted to provide for the one thing his daughter uniquely desired.
But regrettably, Ye Ji was already earning her own money.
His daughter, growing faster than anticipated, was changing day by day as she stepped beyond her boundaries.
Watching Ye Ji pay with her own card, her father felt a pang—a subtle sense of loss.
***
Hyun Min was spending time alone at the summer villa in Yangpyeong during his break.
Numerous works hung luxuriously in the living room.
Sprawled carelessly on plush, high-end furniture, he spent the day enjoying summer sunlight and the breeze of air conditioning.
It was quite a pleasant summer retreat.
Ordinarily, he would have traveled somewhere, but this time he wanted to simply savor the leisure.
Besides, with just a mobile phone in hand, rumors from the entire world came flooding in.
Easy as it was, there was no time for boredom.
Meanwhile, in France, the Second Round Evaluation of the Montblanc Youth Art Competition was well underway.
By this point, the first group’s judging should have just concluded.
News related to it was being posted on the homepage and artists’ social media accounts, drawing interest.
“……This won’t be easy.”
Among them were painters so renowned that Hyun Min himself had heard of them.
And soon, the second group—which included Ye Ji—would also begin their work.
Based on patterns from previous years, all results would be made public in roughly two weeks.
“…….”
Hyun Min shifted his gaze to the work displayed in the center of the living room.
The painting Ye Ji had created on commission from Shin Myung Hee, his mother, had been moved to the most central position.
Waves crossing from all directions and the tentacles of a jellyfish stretching downward.
A masterpiece executed so naturally from any angle, it exceeded Hyun Min’s expectations.
And with the additional courtesy of letting the work’s owner make the final decision on its orientation.
Ye Ji had initially suggested hanging it so the jellyfish appeared to rise upward.
But after hearing her explanation, Hyun Min had hung the work in every direction to check.
In the end, he’d turned it around.
The jellyfish sinking toward deeper waters.
That gave him one particular feeling.
‘Silence.’
Hyun Min loved the quiet he felt beneath the waves in the work.
His liking for the sea was simple.
That vast and boundless mystery.
The beings of the deep abyss that even money and power had not yet fully grasped.
Though many words existed in the world, Hyun Min believed no word held as many meanings as the sea.
The sea—vast and boundless—was often used as a word evoking warmth, the endlessly peaceful source of life.
Yet conversely, it was also described as cruel and fierce, a tyrant that swallows and destroys all.
The sea’s multivalent nature was expressed through works of such diversity.
Ye Ji’s work was one that expressed that very multiplicity beautifully.
And his own circumstances, too, held that multifaceted quality.
Being a chaebol had many positive aspects, but distinct drawbacks as well.
Selfishly, he disliked those drawbacks and had lived most of his life concealing his identity from the media.
Soon, that quiet time would end.
‘How should I approach it?’
Once that quiet shattered, how should he shape the life that followed?
A reprieve of limited duration.
Toward what turmoil would he advance from within it?
Hyun Min gazed intently at Ye Ji’s work, lost in thought.
Already, one plan was taking shape in his mind.
***
Another day passed in Paris.
And so, as time flowed on, the morning the second group’s judging began arrived.
Ye Ji opened her eyes with a clear mind.
She packed her things methodically and ate a hearty breakfast.
In front of the hotel, now familiar after several visits over just two days.
It was a pleasant walk to Montblanc, just a few blocks away.
This summer, France’s temperature ran higher than average.
The newly warming concrete heat of a summer morning.
Though the temperature shimmered, it wasn’t unpleasant.
It actually reminded her of the familiar Seoul cityscape, calming her mind.
“Nervous?”
At her father’s question, Ye Ji paused to think.
“Not as much as I expected, actually.”
Ye Ji thought she meant it genuinely.
It didn’t quite feel real, was the better way to put it.
That she was in Paris, that she stood here at Montblanc—
Everything felt slightly unreal, dreamlike in its lack of immediacy.
Yet her body tensed, making the back of her neck stiff with an odd sensation.
Hard to name precisely, it was something other than nervousness—a calm composure settling deep.
It was perhaps akin to some measure of burden.
Could she produce work that satisfied her own standards?
She felt a slight restlessness she hadn’t experienced in recent times.
Her father, watching her, reached out and stroked her hair.
“You’re nervous, though you won’t admit it.”
……Was she? Was this nervousness?
Ye Ji nodded, her mind working at half speed.
Finally arrived at the gallery.
The judging area was restricted from public access.
A staff member was checking identification at the entrance.
Only the participants themselves were allowed beyond this point.
“You’ll be fine.”
Her father’s large, warm hand massaged the back of her neck.
As if sensing the pressure Ye Ji was under, he soothed her slowly and gently.
“Don’t try to do well. Just do enough that you won’t have regrets when you come back out.”
At her father’s words, Ye Ji felt her head clear a little.
Without knowing it, she’d made her past self a competitor.
It seemed almost pathetic to be bound to the shadow of the past, aiming to surpass it.
Ye Ji nodded more firmly at her father’s words, then stepped inside.
“…….”
The judging space was a very large communal hall.
The upper gallery overlooked the ground floor.
Apparently, the judges sat above while participants worked below.
On the ground floor, ten easels with canvases were arranged in two rows of five each.
Beside each easel stood a small table, with paints and materials of all kinds arranged throughout the space.
Asked to surrender her mobile phone at the entrance, Ye Ji took it out and switched it to silent.
[Ethan: Good Luck]
A direct message from Ethan appeared in her notifications.
“…….”
Ye Ji decided to reply after today’s work was done and submitted her phone.
The ten easels lined up bore name tags.
[South Korea, Yeji Lee.]
Ye Ji took her place before the easel bearing her name.
The time limit was from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Work would proceed for six hours, with breaks to eat and rest freely in between.
The total working period would span ten days.
“Phew……”
Nervous? Maybe so.
Ye Ji steadied her breathing and looked around.
Most of the gathered participants looked her age or slightly older.
Given the Western system, she was still sixteen years old.
She would turn seventeen next month.
This competition allowed participants up to nineteen.
The others all appeared several years her senior.
Even accounting for Western youthfulness, some looked as though they couldn’t possibly be in their teens.
A Japanese girl was the closest match to her age, creating the least sense of incongruity.
As these thoughts passed through her mind, the clock had already reached 9:55.
Five minutes before the test began.
All participants stood before their ten easels.
Then a middle-aged man who appeared to be a judge stepped forward.
“Bonjour.”
An interpreter came out alongside him to translate his opening remarks.
Ye Ji felt something subtle as she loosened her hands.
The man who had come forward was Julien Valmont, a world-renowned painter serving as a judge.
He was a figure whose face was quite familiar to Ye Ji.
He had risen to prominence around the same time as Catherine, often clashing with her as a kind of rival.
‘So he’s the judge.’
It wasn’t a promising start.
He was quite stubborn, with a strong ego.
Moreover, he was profoundly selfish and cunning.
Catherine, equally self-absorbed, naturally had poor relations with him.
Had it been merely poor relations?
At the time, they’d been near rivals, openly arguing with each other.
While she had these thoughts, the ceremonial remarks about being grateful to have a special day dragged on.
Then came the momentous announcement of the theme.
Apparently to draw out the time appropriately, he checked the time, and the instant it struck 10:59, he announced the theme.
On-site Work for the Second Round Evaluation.
The theme was.
[L’Aile]
The words displayed on the monitor were a brief phrase in French.
But for participants of various nationalities, translated words followed in succession.
Among them was now the most familiar language to Ye Ji.
[The Wing]
The theme of the Second Round Evaluation was the wing.
With that, he instructed them to express the theme freely using their own vision and means of expression.
Julien descended from the podium.
Silence fell over the hall, now containing only the participants.
A digital clock sat before them, and a quiet unmarred even by the sound of ticking stretched on.

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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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