The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 7

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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 7.
At his forthright declaration, even the students who had been voicing suspicions fell silent.
He had deliberately worked only at school the entire time to preempt any doubts that might arise.
Every single student in the class.
He’d made them all witnesses to the fact that Ye-ji had painted that picture with her own hands.
Of course, that included Ji-an.
Hadn’t they seen it plenty during the communal evening self-study sessions and regular classes?
“What? I mean….”
Did she want to say something?
But before Ye-ji could finish, Ji-an cut in.
“Or maybe you took some amazing class somewhere, took some miracle drug.”
A drug? This wasn’t America or Europe.
To compare herself to those garbage types who picked up strange things in the name of art and consumed them.
There was something subtly off-putting about that measured voice oscillating between praise and sarcasm.
“Did you watch some drama or something?”
Da-hye, busy correcting her painting nearby, scowled and looked up at Ji-an.
“I was joking. Why are you taking it so seriously?”
Then Ji-an laughed lightly and added as though it were nothing.
“You stopped going to that expensive academy recently, and suddenly your skills shot up. I’m just curious how you did it, so I’d like to learn from you.”
Kim Ji-an was the top honor student across the entire first-year Art Department.
She would know, having seen it herself, that Ye-ji had painted this work directly.
So why would she say such a thing now, when students from different classes and different grades were gathered, where the truth couldn’t be verified?
That subtle tone—the envy and malice woven into it—Ye-ji felt it acutely.
For Ji-an, the truth probably didn’t matter at all.
She just wanted to plant a negative rumor when people were gathered like this.
If that swelled into something that affected her own award, it would be to Ji-an’s benefit.
“Well.”
Of course, she had no intention of letting things play out that way.
Before that ugly hostility, Ye-ji smiled faintly.
“I just spent all day in the same class as you, in the same studio, painting together.”
She had shown every step of her creative process publicly.
But what about Ji-an?
“Oh, right. You were hardly ever at school because you went to that expensive academy, weren’t you? So you probably couldn’t have seen it.”
“What?”
Ji-an, caught in a reversal of her own accusations, wore a flustered expression.
Ye-ji, facing her, added one more thing.
“Besides, yours was watercolor, wasn’t it? I’ve never seen it. I’m curious what it looks like.”
Watercolor dries relatively quickly.
If you wanted to raise suspicions, watercolor would be more suspicious than oil, which is harder to move around.
It would be far easier to carry a work back and forth between academy and school for proxy work.
“Actually, I haven’t seen Kim Ji-an’s work either.”
Da-hye, listening from the side, stared hard at Ji-an and added her own comment.
Then Ji-an, looking even more flustered, rushed to object.
“What do you mean? Everyone knows how I paint because you’ve all seen me during class. Do you think I’m pulling something?”
Rather, Ye-ji countered with a smile still on her face.
“I was joking too. Why are you being so serious about it?”
Among the onlookers, the situation had completely reversed.
Ye-ji’s painting was a work of remarkable growth.
Ji-an’s painting was one that no one had properly witnessed being created.
Having framed it that way, Ye-ji decided to soothe Ji-an appropriately.
She had no intention of making a scene.
“Either way, you’ll be the top student in the school this semester too. What are you worried about?”
She meant it sincerely.
In Korea, being an honor student wasn’t something you became just by being good at things.
Students who are just good tend to become eccentrics.
Usually, exceptional students refers to those who do well at what they’re told to do.
Ji-an’s painting was less art than it was a picture specialized for Korean entrance exams.
Uniform still-lifes with bold, precise chiaroscuro that looked almost sharp.
If Korean professors and teachers graded it, he would receive higher marks in the technical aspects.
‘In the first place, what I wanted wasn’t an award anyway—it was a painting I wouldn’t be ashamed to show Chloe.’
Ye-ji had no interest in worrying about grades.
In the art world, grades weren’t indicators of success anyway.
And since her goals and Ji-an’s were clearly different, there was no need for either of them to be troubled by each other.
But Ji-an’s thoughts were different.
“The judge this time is Chloe, though. You might not be the top student in school.”
The fact that the main judge for this Year-End Practical Exam Exhibition was someone far removed from Korean entrance exam standards was an important factor.
“What good is a high practical score? It’s the general subject grades that matter.”
Ye-ji had meant to ease the situation somewhat.
But instead, Ji-an’s expression hardened noticeably.
“Oh, so your practical score is higher than mine?”
Did she have to pin it down like that?
Even after all this, Ji-an remained stubbornly hostile.
There was no reason to tell her otherwise.
The moment Ye-ji smiled faintly, in the suddenly tense atmosphere, Ji-an’s expression contorted completely.
A conflict on the verge of erupting.
“Teacher, teacher!”
Hyun-min’s cheerful voice rang out.
Along with that loud voice came Gi-hun, the homeroom teacher of Class 1.
“You won’t be doing anything anyway at the Year-End Exhibition! Let’s go have the wrap-up party!”
“What are you talking about? You seem to have forgotten that you have your Final Exam right after this exhibition.”
Gi-hun, pulled along by Hyun-min, sensed the strange atmosphere at the scene.
Ye-ji and Ji-an at a standoff.
The students circled around them quietly dispersed at the teacher’s arrival.
…….
It was clearly a situation on the verge of a fight.
Sensing the situation, the teacher called to both of them with a stern face.
“Kim Ji-an, Ye-ji. What are you two doing?”
“……Nothing, sir.”
Ji-an, her face flushed with irritation, brushed Ye-ji’s shoulder and left the scene.
“That crazy….”
At her departure, Da-hye spoke tersely as though on Ye-ji’s behalf, glaring at the back of Ji-an’s head.
But Ye-ji seemed unbothered and let it pass without much concern.
Instead, she looked over at Hyun-min across from her.
As their eyes met, Hyun-min shamelessly made a peace sign with his fingers.
‘He called the teacher before the situation got bigger.’
It seemed he had called the teacher with a convenient excuse rather than risk the problem escalating by admitting a fight was about to break out.
Even if he seemed foolish, Hyun-min was the type who had good social sense to match his pushiness.
He’d shown it even in the situation where he’d gotten her injured before.
Hadn’t he given her his own credit card to ensure there was clear evidence of compensation without murking the situation?
After the situation had been smoothed over, the teacher had no choice but to accept it.
“I’m not sending you two anywhere when I’m worried about you. Wait in the classroom. I’ll order pizza for you.”
“Oh! Give me cheese crust, please!”
“You post an announcement in the class group chat. And I’ll try calling Ji-an.”
With that, Gi-hun hurried off.
“That one’s better off gone…!”
Hyun-min whispered low enough that Gi-hun wouldn’t hear.
Ye-ji laughed at his shamelessness.
“I would have been fine without it.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t have lost either way.”
At Hyun-min’s words, Ye-ji shrugged.
There was no need for them to have a bad relationship, but no need for it to be good either.
Those who doubted her abilities even after seeing them and harbored malice were twisted from the core.
Since they couldn’t receive kindness for what it was, there was no reason to go out of her way for them.
If Ye-ji scratched them lightly with appropriate responses, Ji-an seemed like the type who would dig her own grave.
Letting her erase her own image that way wouldn’t have been bad either.
“But you shouldn’t be doing that either.”
Hyun-min added firmly, as though he’d read Ye-ji’s intentions.
Then he quickly changed the subject.
“Da, are you done? Let’s go eat pizza.”
Hyun-min stood up Da-hye, who still had lingering attachment to her work.
As he made a circuit around the exhibition hall, all the remaining Class 1 students could gather up.
The students of Class 1, assembled so noisily it was hard to tell whose voice was whose, mingled together.
Given the nature of a specialized school, a single class was only about twenty people.
Coming together from morning through evening work every day meant they’d grown quite close to one another.
As Hyun-min followed behind Ye-ji to leave, he paused for a moment.
…….
He turned back once more.
As though it might overflow and spill out.
The ripples in Ye-ji’s painting wavered vividly.
Full Bloom
True to its title, blossoms in full bloom lay submerged beneath the water’s surface.
The accumulated paint was thick enough to give a three-dimensional quality.
That volume felt like vivid waves had been taxidermied intact.
It was certainly not a work that could emerge from shallow technique.
Despite being filled with dark colors, the painting somehow stirred a peculiar emotional depth.
“Full Bloom….”
The flowers were in full bloom as their name suggested, yet remained hidden.
Trapped in deep water, they could not reveal their fragrance or clear form.
Would those flowers ever rise above the water?
Or had they already shone brilliantly and then sunk?
He found himself wanting to hear the artist’s thoughts and interpretation of the work.
Was this truly the depth a mere seventeen-year-old could produce?
Hyun-min, who had seen works by countless masters, felt something like déjà vu.
After watching the painting for a moment, Hyun-min picked up his phone.
Click—
With the phone’s shutter sound, Hyun-min too followed his friends out.
***
“Ugh.”
Ahem.
Ye-ji cleared her parched, dry throat as she woke.
The teacher had said yesterday to eat pizza and go straight home, but can you really call yourself seventeen if you actually listen?
Because they’d stretched things all the way to the Karaoke Lounge, her throat was completely hoarse.
“Being young is nice, real nice….”
Mentally she was exhausted by all the noise, but surprisingly, her body wasn’t tired at all.
‘Congratulations, Ye-ji.’
‘Honestly, I’m jealous. But still… I watched everything you did, so it feels weird.’
‘Why couldn’t I do it? I’m getting these kinds of thoughts too.’
‘Later, look at my painting once! Should we make a study group together?’
Ye-ji mulled over the congratulations and praises echoing in her mind.
Though the grades hadn’t been announced yet, she herself felt satisfied with this work.
‘Kim Ji-an, that one always was a little unlucky anyway.’
‘Adults like her, so now she thinks she’s someone.’
Ji-an’s jealousy hadn’t even earned support from the other students.
Rather, the artificial model student image that Ji-an had maintained, one that looked like it was painted by adults.
That image was more than enough to create a sense of dissonance among her classmates.
Thanks to that, the class was in the mood to celebrate Ye-ji’s unexpected growth.
Whether sincere or not, at least it was that way.
With the atmosphere being what it was, Ye-ji began to feel a little hopeful.
Maybe unintentionally, maybe her grades would really skyrocket too….
Gurgle.
She’d planned to sleep in, but her stomach was hungry.
Today was the first day of the Year-End Practical Exam Exhibition.
It was the day when general visitors and judges would begin viewing the works.
She was supposed to go see the work with her parents this afternoon, so her morning was free.
‘Eat something, then maybe just paint.’
In two weeks, she’d have her general subject Final Exams.
Thinking about grades, she probably should study.
…….
But that could wait until after eating.
“Heave.”
For some reason, the bed felt so good lately that getting up wasn’t easy.
Back in the day, I had this awful cotton stuffed….
“…?”
The vibration of her phone cut through her wandering thoughts.
An unknown number. For spam, it was an unusual 010 number.
“Hello?”
Without much thought, Ye-ji picked up and frowned at the voice on the other end.
“…Yes? Oh, no.”
Still half-asleep, Ye-ji was startled and gripped her phone tighter, raising the volume.
“What did you say?”
What came through was less shocking than it was infuriating.
“Your work is damaged?”

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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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