The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 72

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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 72.
In the end, Ye Ji had no choice but to move to a nearby café.
The conversation looked set to be a long one.
She couldn’t keep everyone waiting indefinitely, so it became slightly awkward, but Da Hye and Hyun Min ended up heading home first in her parents’ car.
“You could just take it lightly, really…….”
Sung Soo said as much, but once seated in the café, Ye Ji carefully spread the photographs across the table.
A jumble of numerous photos and materials.
Ye Ji picked up the photographs one by one.
After glancing through them, a clear categorical structure began to emerge.
As she sorted the photos by what she could see, she was able to understand the reason for his sudden departure abroad.
“You went out to scout locations overseas?”
The majority of the photographs were images of various locations.
No matter how one looked at them, the surrounding trees and vistas couldn’t possibly be domestic.
Deserts, snowy mountains, plains, and sea.
Sung Soo nodded as he watched Ye Ji sort through and select the photos.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Yawn.
Sung Soo let out a long, drawn-out yawn.
In the meantime, the other photographs Ye Ji had sorted out turned out to be clothing.
“This is…….”
Garments with clear color schemes and concepts, coordinated down to the accessories.
The photographs printed for each outfit complemented the concept photos in a strangely fitting way.
Of course, the photo quality left much to be desired…….
“Is this how it’s supposed to work?”
Ye Ji naturally placed the clothing photos on top of the background images they matched best with.
“Yeah, that’s right. That’s how we’re going to proceed…….”
Sung Soo chuckled as he watched Ye Ji pair them up with such precision.
“See? I told you that you’d be able to figure it out without us needing to talk it through.”
She had a rough sense of what he wanted to say.
He wanted her to create artwork that would match these carefully coordinated shoots.
“……But.”
In truth, Sung Soo’s work wasn’t particularly urban in its aesthetic.
Most of his pieces emphasized nature and wilderness, the bonds between humans and animals within that world.
Yet the clothing concepts he’d brought were the opposite of what he’d been showing in his recent work.
“Isn’t this a luxury brand?”
Seliane—a luxury brand she’d never bought from but had heard of.
The watermarks stamped across the photos and the logos embedded in the garments made it easy to identify.
Sung Soo nodded at Ye Ji’s question.
“It is, indeed. After all, what people wear is an inescapable element of human life.”
Food, clothing, and shelter.
Among the three essential necessities, clothing was what people most readily abandoned, yet it was also what they mentioned first.
“These days, brands are showing a lot of interest in eco-friendly materials and sustainable business practices.”
From global warming to animal cruelty.
Various ethical perspectives and standards are being demanded of corporations.
And consumers are beginning to pay attention to these elements as well.
For companies, it was a strategy to capture a broader consumer base.
“In that context, they said they wanted to collaborate with me.”
Luxury brands didn’t want their primary consumer base to stagnate, after all.
“……So you decided to take it on?”
Ye Ji looked at Sung Soo with a face still full of questions.
She could understand why the company had sought out Sung Soo based on his explanation.
But why he’d actually accepted the work remained unclear.
“Well, that’s…….”
Ah, this gets a bit complicated.
Sung Soo let out a sigh and paused to choose his words before speaking again.
“I turned them down at first.”
Sung Soo had thought that “luxury brand” didn’t really fit with who he was.
But while preparing to collaborate with Ye Ji, he’d reconsidered and decided to think about a wider range of opportunities and directions.
Taking it slowly and thinking it through again, he realized he had no good reason not to do this.
The explanation of his values would take more than a night.
Among all those reasons, there was one Sung Soo wanted to mention to Ye Ji.
“I thought it might be nice to work on a bigger project properly, after a while.”
Challenging yourself and trying the various things you’re capable of.
Not becoming trapped in your own small world, but continually seeing and experiencing more.
That’s what it meant to collaborate with Ye Ji, and for Sung Soo, collaborating with a luxury brand fell into the same category.
“Seeing you go all the way to France gave me a push too, I’ll admit…….”
Ye Ji slowly nodded as she watched Sung Soo laugh with an embarrassed expression.
As always, he was honest about everything, and it was enough to convince her.
The work seemed to be growing bigger and bigger, yet strangely, with each expansion, Ye Ji’s heart raced faster.
‘What can I accomplish, and how far can I go?’
Ye Ji couldn’t tear her eyes from the materials.
Sung Soo fumbled around for his mobile phone and spoke.
“I had to talk with the headquarters director at Seliane, which is actually why I left the country so suddenly.”
He was walking back a refusal he’d given before.
For a collaboration to work, they needed to be clear about what each side was thinking as they pursued this project.
Ye Ji picked up a small note that had been lying among the materials.
[This folder contains materials related to next year’s new product line. Please keep it strictly confidential.]
“…….”
Without thinking, Ye Ji glanced nervously around the café and put the materials back into the folder.
But Sung Soo seemed unconcerned, checking his schedule on his mobile phone as he asked:
“Next Monday afternoon. Does that work for you?”
Ye Ji’s schedule after returning to Korea was completely open.
She’d agreed to help with Sung Soo’s work during the remaining vacation.
“Yes, that works fine.”
“Then we’ll have a meeting with the brand rep that day, so let’s go together.”
There would probably be a lot to coordinate.
But in the context of actual work, wasn’t that a minor concern?
Ye Ji nodded, suppressing the mental images that were already beginning to form.
“Yes, let’s talk through everything then.”
***
That night, Ye Ji lay down on her own bed for the first time in a while.
Even lying there in a daze, sleep wouldn’t come.
Instead, her mind grew clearer, and a strange sense of reality washed over her.
‘Did I really… pull it off…….’
The moment of the awards ceremony came back to her.
It felt vivid like it had happened yesterday, yet ancient at the same time.
Ethan, his eyes widened in shock.
Lucas, visibly taken aback.
Marc, whom she’d faced up close while accepting the award.
That handshake.
Unlike his hand, which showed the passage of time, his eyes hadn’t changed one bit from how they used to be.
‘That person really hasn’t changed at all.’
After the ceremony ended, there had been a discussion about her first solo exhibition.
Montreaubleu proved more than sufficient as the venue for her first show.
The emotional significance, the external prestige.
Everything was perfectly suited.
As her thoughts grew longer, her heart grew restless, and sleep simply wouldn’t come.
After tossing and turning a few times, Ye Ji finally reached for the mobile phone she’d left on her nightstand.
Retracing what had happened in Paris, she wondered if perhaps Elisa had sent her a message.
“Oof…….”
But when Ye Ji opened her Instagram DMs, she let out a sigh.
The DMs that had accumulated in her absence weren’t just from Korea—there were now messages in French and English as well.
[Elisa: Ye Ji! Congratulations so much!]
[Elisa: I heard the news. I’m so happy you won the Grand Prize.]
Sure enough, Elisa had left a message.
A cute congratulatory greeting plastered with heart and fireworks emojis.
The problem was that the message had come two days ago.
Ye Ji pressed her forehead briefly and quickly typed a reply.
[I was so busy with returning home that I’m just now seeing this.]
[Thanks so much for the congrats.]
After leaving that message, she was about to put her phone down again.
But Elisa replied immediately.
In the casual back-and-forth of exchanging greetings and checking in on each other’s safe returns,
Ye Ji felt a moment of confusion.
Elisa, having been active for longer, had more followers than Ye Ji did.
When Ye Ji asked how she’d checked the DM so quickly, Elisa answered right away.
[Elisa: Oh.]
[Elisa: Funny thing is, when followers get this high, DMs sometimes actually decrease.]
People with many followers often assume they won’t see DMs because there are too many of them.
But Ye Ji didn’t entirely understand the logic.
[Still seems like there’d be a lot though?]
Even if just one percent of her followers messaged her, that would be a substantial number.
Elisa didn’t really disagree with what Ye Ji said.
[Elisa: From what I can see,]
[Elisa: I think you’d benefit from having a private account.]
Already, the name “Ye Ji” was starting to gain fame, and while it was good to leverage that,
[Elisa: When the attention becomes burdensome, some people use a pseudonym.]
A pseudonym, huh.
Ye Ji paused and looked at her SNS account.
More than being inconvenienced by having her name public, the real reason these messages bothered her was that she was known as high schooler Ye Ji.
Perhaps they thought that because she was a student, it’d be easier to persuade her.
Or maybe they just assumed she was a newcomer.
Regardless of the reason, most of the messages were just attempts to buy her work cheaply.
Once she became more famous and galleries got involved, commissions would start appearing, after all.
It was truly absurd, but rarely, she’d even get DMs begging for money after seeing the prize money or artwork prices.
[Elisa: It would be a lot easier to have a separate account where you collect just the people you want updates from or who check in on you.]
It seemed worth considering.
[Thanks for the advice.]
After some congratulations and chatting, the conversation naturally began to wind down.
To Ye Ji’s suggestion that they talk again next time, Elisa’s reply came after a slight pause.

[Elisa: And this is my private account.]
[Elisa: Just for reference. (laughing emoji)]
[Elisa: I’ll reach out again next time!]
***
Monday afternoon, in a café parking lot in Cheongdam-dong.
A well-dressed woman was adjusting her appearance one more time.
She was Yoon Ina, the marketing team lead at Seliane, a luxury brand.
She was determined to give this project everything she had.
Simple luxury goods no longer held appeal.
There was a need to break into more diverse market segments and build favorable impressions across different demographics.
Approaching customers only with an overwhelming, flashy, and extravagant image was outdated now.
‘I need something younger, cooler.’
So for the next season, Seliane was preparing a major project.
It was actually planned by the director of the Italian headquarters himself.
To capture youthful imagery and energy in the photography for the upcoming collection.
For that, suitable photographers from around the world had been selected.
The selection of a Korean photographer was an opportunity for her.
Being a Korean photographer made her role all the more significant.
If she managed this project well and it succeeded, it would certainly be a tremendous boost to her career.
“Phew…….”
With a sigh, Ina steadied her breathing and entered the agreed-upon location.
Sung Soo was already a world-renowned photographer.
She had to guide him carefully without offending him, while also ensuring the project benefited the brand image.
Moreover, headquarters had mentioned that a painter would also be collaborating on this project.
Since the Italian director couldn’t check everything in person, they’d entrusted the judgment to her.
So she had to coordinate the painter’s involvement smoothly, neatly, and with good taste on her own.
‘That’s easier said than done…….’
Ina entered with considerable nervousness and then froze.
The people who appeared at the meeting place were not the sort of individuals Ina had expected.

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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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