The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 67

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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 67.
The first two days unfolded much as expected.
“The famous Louvre Museum!”
Ye Ji laughed at her father, who seemed far more excited than she was.
The sightseeing began with the Louvre Museum.
The works on display weren’t new to her, but seeing them again let her reflect on the values of that era—and that was worth something.
Besides, her vision had been incomplete the last time she’d seen them, so there was a certain novelty to it now.
Between the Mona Lisa and countless other exhibits, half a day melted away.
At the Musée de l’Orangerie, they viewed the celebrated works, including Monet’s Water Lilies.
Place du Tertre was filled with portrait painters.
The two of them, idling over sandwiches, decided to have their likenesses sketched as a souvenir.
There had been a time when she herself painted portraits, scrounging for whatever income she could find.
‘I was gritting my teeth back then.’
Watching the young painter render her and her father, Ye Ji stopped comparing him to the Catherine of old.
She had been consumed by self-pity and anxiety; this painter was different.
Or perhaps it was simply that she herself had changed, and so her perspective had shifted.
“I think my stomach’s giving out on all this richness.”
“I could do without another bite of butter.”
Tired of Western cuisine, the two of them ducked into a Korean restaurant.
Of course, it wasn’t particularly good—likely limited by the quality of ingredients available.
By Korean standards, it would have been called mediocre at best.
But after so long without it, it tasted decent enough.
After that, they wandered through the smaller galleries scattered throughout the Marais District.
Moving at such a pace, two days slipped by in what felt like no time.
It seemed they’d seen nearly everything Paris proper had to offer.
There was something to be said for leisurely savoring the rhythm of life in Paris.
‘Korean tourists, though—we live by packed itineraries.’
Besides, while she’d been working for ten days, her father had spent most of that time near the hotel, worried sick about her.
And Ye Ji herself had memories from her past life, so she felt no real need to linger over the pleasures of Paris.
On their third free day in the city.
“Should we venture a bit further?”
Just beyond the city limits, the countryside was dotted with sites connected to the arts.
Giverny, where you could see Monet’s birthplace and gardens.
Barbizon, where you could walk in the footsteps of Millet and Rousseau.
“Where should we start?”
As they ate breakfast and began planning their route, Ye Ji’s Mobile Phone rang.
“Huh?”
It was a call from Montrabelle.
“A group tour?”
A handful of contestants remained, waiting for the Judging results.
The message was that Montrabelle wanted to offer them a small trip as a token of gratitude.
Since she had no particularly compelling destination in mind, there was no reason to decline.
And besides…
‘Is his money burning a hole in his pocket?’
It was absurd, but Ye Ji found herself worried about Marc’s finances.
The entry fees alone for this competition must have been substantial.
She thought of Marc as she remembered him—worn down by time, looking older than his years.
He was sharp as a knife, yet when it came to anything artistic, he could be almost recklessly generous.
He was a man who had believed in her to the very end, though she came from nowhere, with no credentials and no connections.
Of course, those two things alone didn’t prove everything; his real weakness had always been his temperament, which was anything but smooth.
But Marc was someone who had looked at Catherine’s work purely as art, setting aside all her background and circumstance.
Even knowing he was already wealthy, the old gratitude lingered—which brought forth this useless sentimentality.
‘There’s no reason to refuse, anyway.’
Perhaps everyone else was thinking the same thing.
By early afternoon, everyone who had remained in Paris gathered—all the contestants still here.
Though calling them “everyone” was generous; with the first group, there were maybe six of them total.
Kobayashi, predictably, was not among them.
“(What good would staying do anyway?)”
Ethan, who was in the remaining group, called out to Ye Ji as she glanced around.
Since her father was still eyeing him with clear disapproval, Ethan greeted him with polite formality.
“(From what I can tell, your father doesn’t really know you.)”
Ye Ji’s expression grew puzzled at Ethan’s sudden whisper.
He had expected as much and continued his complaint.
“(Why is he suspicious of a guy who’s been ignored for four days straight on Direct Message?)”
Wait—had Ethan sent her a Direct Message?
Ye Ji quickly checked Instagram.
There were far more accumulated messages than a few, and she’d never even blocked them.
Among them were old school friends, along with artwork inquiries that had been piling up, and…
“(You really can’t find it?)”
Ethan laughed, bewildered by her expression.
“(It’s not intentional. I’m sorry—I was worried you’d just set the account to private.)”
At her words, Ethan shook his head.
“(It’s fine to keep a separate contact just for close friends. But don’t lock down this account.)”
In this day and age, even artists needed to promote themselves.
There was no reason to shut down an account that was already gaining traction, Ethan insisted passionately.
His argument made sense, but Ye Ji had no interest in managing such things.
“(Anyway, you don’t need to worry about finding me. I was just hoping we could grab a meal if you had time.)”
The longer their conversation continued, the sharper her father’s gaze toward Ethan became.
“Why does he keep coming up to you like that?”
“Come on, Dad—don’t make such a big deal out of him saying hello.”
“Men don’t approach women without reason unless they’re interested! That’s just how it works!”
Approaching? No—he wouldn’t even look her way unless he had something to say.
Ye Ji replied awkwardly to her father’s logic.
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
It was true that Ethan seemed to take an interest in her.
But from Ye Ji’s perspective, his interest had only one focus.
Her work as an artist.
And she was equally interested in his art.
Whatever her father thought, Ethan’s interest definitely lay in that direction alone.
Though he couldn’t follow their Korean, Ethan caught the tone and interjected.
“(Wasn’t that restaurant I recommended pretty good?)”
“(It wasn’t bad, but…)”
Her father replied with clear reluctance.
As they continued in simple English, Ye Ji laughed awkwardly.
Over the past two days of sightseeing, the restaurants her father had suggested were mostly decent.
It turned out they had all been Ethan’s recommendations.
As she listened to the two men talk, someone approached her.
It was Lucas, a French contestant who had been in the same second group during the work sessions.
“(Hi.)”
Because of Kobayashi’s influence, the two of them had never really introduced themselves.
He didn’t give off a particularly bright impression, and he was quiet—so Ye Ji had never felt inclined to approach him either.
“(I think there might have been a misunderstanding, and I wanted to apologize.)”
He had come forward of his own accord, wanting to clear things up.
He fumbled through his next words in broken English.
“(You speak French, right? I think you do.)”
He seemed to remember her fluent Public Speaking on the final day of Judging.
When Ye Ji nodded, he continued more easily.
“(I didn’t just believe what Kobayashi said outright. But because you’re so talented, I jumped to the conclusion that something must be wrong with you.)”
His words carried the gravity and subdued intensity that matched his dark, serious demeanor.
“(It’s just an excuse, but I felt I should apologize anyway.)”
Ye Ji nodded to show she accepted his apology.
She held no real feelings toward the other contestants who had let themselves be swayed by gossip and harbored shallow resentment toward her.
She had never wavered at their petty dislike.
Lucas in particular had done nothing more than regard her coldly; he hadn’t taken any actual action against her.
But then an unexpected question occurred to her.
“(But what if you weren’t wrong about me?)”
This was the first real conversation between Ye Ji and Lucas.
What made him so certain that Kobayashi’s words were lies?
Lucas’s expression shifted to confusion at her question.
An arrogant show-off—a selfish genius who dismissed others and only knew herself.
If that was what Kobayashi had said about Ye Ji, how had he determined it was false…?
“(…The meaning in your work. And how you expressed it.)”
Lucas’s answer was brief, but it was enough.
The emotions welling up so powerfully in that piece.
The theme and concept could be advised by others, but the feeling that emanated from the work itself—
That could only be genuine.
An artist’s essence, which couldn’t be asserted by mere words and behavior, lay embedded in that feeling.
Ye Ji nodded in response to Lucas’s answer.
Seeing her reaction, Lucas’s expression became subtle.
“(Now that I think about it, you really are a strange one.)”
To pose such a question to someone trying to apologize and clear the air.
In a way, it was very much the act of a true artist.
As Ye Ji smiled quietly at his remark,
Ethan and her father, who had finished their own conversation, were staring at her intently.
“(You speak French?)”
“When did you learn French?”
At their questions, Ye Ji’s eyes slid away evasively.
Just then, a large tour bus pulled into the meeting area.
***
With six contestants and their guardians, there were only about ten people total.
The bus, which could easily seat forty, was spacious and comfortable.
“It’s just about sounding convincing.”
Language is about momentum, after all.
Her English had that same quality, truth be told.
When she claimed she’d simply practiced hard on her own, her father seemed to accept it.
He seemed to have fallen into the separate misunderstanding that his daughter was a genius—though in a different way.
“(But we’re going somewhere pretty unusual, aren’t we?)”
Ethan, who was sitting near the front, turned around to speak to her.
“Does he not get motion sickness or something?”
Ye Ji laughed at her father’s continued wariness toward Ethan.
But Ethan was right.
Their destination wasn’t the sort of place typical tourists usually sought out.
A cheerful female guide picked up the microphone and began explaining in English.
“(The Saint-Denis we’re heading to is probably not a tourist attraction many of you have heard of.)”
Paris was a city of diverse attractions.
People could visit anywhere they wanted if they had the inclination.
Knowing that full well, Montrabelle had chosen a special destination.
A city outside Paris where locals would find inspiration, but which tourists usually never visited.
They had decided on Saint-Denis.
‘But why would they choose Saint-Denis for that reason?’
As the guide’s explanation continued, Ye Ji’s bewilderment only grew.
Saint-Denis was a place where she had lived in her past life.
In her memory, Saint-Denis was nothing more than a backwater.
Though only twenty or thirty minutes from Paris, it had been the gray era of factories and rundown streets.
As cheap as the housing was, there was just as little to see; far from any artistic inspiration, she remembered most vividly the smell of canal water and decay.
“(Well, we’ve arrived in Saint-Denis!)”
As the guide announced their arrival, Ye Ji leaned toward the window.
“…?”
This was Saint-Denis?
The first things that caught her eye were vivid, colorful pieces of Graffiti.
Not the kind of scrawl you’d expect on a rundown street—these were remarkably sophisticated.
Vibrant primary colors arranged with deliberate composition held her gaze.
“(Starting with last year’s Euro Championship, a district revitalization project was completed, and this entire area was designated as a Street Art District.)”
The bus moved into the downtown area as the guide spoke.
In the distance, the cathedral was visible—proof that this was the same place from her memory.
But everything else had changed.
“(With many young artists now setting up studios in this area, you’ll be able to see unique artistic styles and works. Please feel free to explore the neighborhood at your leisure.)”
The guide would lead them, but it seemed there was no obligation to follow her exactly.
The streets ahead were bustling with energy and activity.
At the heart of this transformation, young people seeking new opportunities naturally gathered.
People in casual clothes carrying spray cans moved through the streets, and construction equipment was visible everywhere.
The dirty canal that had reeked before was now filled with brilliant Graffiti.
As Ye Ji looked around at how much her surroundings had transformed, she found herself thinking of her old home.

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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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