The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 81

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 81.
“What on earth is this?”
Ye Ji stopped in the hallway at the sound of Kang Hyuk’s startled voice.
It was a voice that felt welcoming in its familiarity, though it had been a while.
“What’s the matter?”
“Oh? Ah. Right. Ye Ji. Hi.”
After exchanging greetings almost on reflex, Ye Ji peered into the classroom.
The Practice Room was covered in pristine white fabric so completely that it was slightly difficult to walk on.
The desks and easels had all been cleared away, leaving only the pure white cloth—nothing else.
Ye Ji and Kang Hyuk hesitated at the entrance, wondering if they’d come to the wrong place.
“Um, hey….”
“What are you two doing?”
Hyun A and Kang Yura arrived at the classroom entrance and spotted the two of them.
“Well….”
Ye Ji pointed into the classroom with her hand.
At the sight of the pristine white space, Hyun A and Kang Yura were equally taken aback.
“I almost stepped on it and got a fright.”
By human nature, there was an instinctive resistance to stepping on something so immaculately clean.
The four students checked the classroom nameplate again.
This was definitely the right classroom for today’s lesson.
“Hey, everyone!”
As all four students stood hesitating, a cheerful voice echoed from the opposite end of the hallway.
It was Young, arriving with her characteristically bright energy.
“Why aren’t you coming in? What are you waiting for?”
Young spoke casually and entered through the front door first.
As she stepped into the pristine white space with heavy strides, clear footprints marked the fabric.
Dark smudges from her gray shoes.
Seeing this, Ye Ji quickly entered as well.
Watching her lead the way, the other three cautiously followed inside.
Soon, five sets of footprints began appearing haphazardly across the white cloth.
Young seemed unbothered by any of it and simply flopped down in the center of the room.
“You all brought your assignments, right?”
Young had given them only one Vacation Homework assignment.
‘While reflecting on your vacation, draw how you’ve changed during that time.’
Yet the classroom had neither easels nor display stands.
Everyone had to sit on the floor with their large bags, nothing more.
“Did everyone have a good vacation?”
Young behaved with such casual composure that nothing seemed amiss about the situation.
The five of them sat in a circle on the floor, looking bewildered.
Ye Ji, unable to hold back any longer, was the first to ask.
“But seriously, why does the classroom look like this today?”
At Ye Ji’s question, Young smiled as if she’d been waiting for it—meaningfully.
“The reason is~”
Young, who had been drawing out the suspense vaguely, spoke decisively.
“I’ll reveal it in three hours!”
Young gestured playfully as she laughed.
“So you all skipped dinner, right? I’m starving.”
Somehow, the first class of last semester came to mind—a sense of déjà vu.
Young, without hesitation, ordered delivery food and gestured.
“Then while we wait, let’s look at your work? We’ll start with Hyun A.”
At some point, this order had naturally become fixed.
“Are you going to keep doing it in that order for the second semester too…?”
Hyun A complained quietly, but she was definitely different from before.
She was anxious, but no longer afraid the way she used to be.
Since there was nowhere to hang artwork, Hyun A carefully pulled out her piece and displayed it in front of her.
“Oh, this is….”
With a shallow breath, Hyun A introduced her painting.
“It’s my room. Um… I changed the structure of my room quite a lot during vacation.”
It was simply her room, furnished and arranged with items her parents had bought for her.
But Hyun A had worked up a sweat during vacation, slowly and gradually rearranging her room herself.
From small things like curtains to larger ones like where her bed and desk were positioned.
She had moved things around trying to find a way that felt comfortable and suited her preferences.
Little by little, she was working to reclaim her self-directed life.
“That’s great. Really nice.”
At Hyun A’s words, Young smiled warmly.
The room was furnished overall with white pieces, but the yellow curtains and bedding created a very warm atmosphere.
In this pleasant mood, it naturally became Kang Hyuk’s turn next.
As attention focused on Kang Hyuk, who sat beside Hyun A, he too pulled out his work from a large box.
“As for me, it’s nothing special. I won awards at two regional competitions during vacation.”
Kang Hyuk’s work resembled a series piece connected to the piggy bank he’d shown last semester.
Small pig figurines were neatly stacked like a house of cards.
It conveyed the sense that he was gradually stacking one by one the things he liked and wanted.
“What do you mean nothing special? That’s impressive.”
When Young reacted to his excessive modesty, Kang Hyuk laughed sheepishly.
“Why? Are domestic regional competitions really on that level?”
With a laugh mixing jest and sincerity, Kang Hyuk gestured toward Ye Ji.
Ye Ji shook her head with an awkward expression.
“It’s not that much.”
“You’re the one being overly modest. That’s annoying.”
When Ye Ji demurred, Kang Hyuk cut her off immediately.
His words weren’t wrong either.
“…Though to be honest, it was a fairly significant competition.”
As Ye Ji looked away slightly and gave a vague affirmation, Young burst into light laughter.
“Well, there are certainly different levels, but I understand what you mean too.”
So then….
Young, who had been pondering her words because of her imperfect Korean, spoke haltingly.
“Art, its true meaning… you know?”
Though textbook-like, there were always things to learn from even ordinary paintings and works—that was art.
Purity and directness that technique and experience struggle to express.
Such things always exist.
Despite Young’s awkward phrasing, everyone seemed to understand what she meant and nodded.
Satisfied that everyone had grasped the point, Young gestured to Ye Ji, who sat next.
“So, let’s start with… applause.”
Before Ye Ji could even look flustered, applause burst out from those sitting around the room.
“She even went to Paris and had quite the ordeal. By the way, we would’ve clapped even if she hadn’t won the award.”
With Young saying that, Ye Ji could enjoy the congratulations without burden.
“Thank you. I just did my best.”
Saying this, Ye Ji pulled out her work to show.
***
A week before school started.
Ye Ji had finished her next piece for Celliant and submitted it.
Celliant’s representative visited the studio in person to confirm and pack the work.
Saying he couldn’t come empty-handed, he’d brought loads of expensive snacks.
Thanks to that, Da Hye, who had been painting alongside her, and Hyun Min, who’d been scrolling through SNS on the first floor, both gathered for a brief break together.
“Ye Ji, you didn’t forget about that, right?”
Hyun Min, who had already finished all the snacks before her, checked Ye Ji’s schedule for her.
Young’s Vacation Homework came with the condition to start working on it a week before vacation ended.
“Of course I didn’t forget.”
How grateful she was to have paintings waiting to be drawn.
Finishing one would make another urgent.
Even as deadlines tangled with deadlines, Ye Ji felt joy rather than anxiety, and she nodded.
Time passed, and her two friends went back to their respective homes, but Ye Ji stayed alone in the studio.
She sat quietly in thought for a moment, then closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath.
Then she stood and took out a fresh canvas.
A clean, pristine canvas with fresh gesso applied.
And instead of paints haphazardly squeezed on palettes, she brought out fresh paint.
‘Me, changed during vacation.’
She had been forced to contemplate this theme throughout the entire vacation.
Every single day had been a series of changes and revelations for her.
From questioning what she was to thinking about how to move forward.
Yet if she still had to express one thing as a work.
Ye Ji wanted to show the new goal she had come to hold.
So she painted the sea.
As always, in the shimmering depths of water, she infused the emotion she wanted to express.
The Columnar Joints—steep cliffs made of Jeju Island’s distinctive black volcanic stone.
Mysterious cliffs and the sun rising beyond them.
The composition resembled Catherine’s Cliffs of Étretat, yet it was different.
Unlike that sea where the sun was setting, a newly risen brilliant sunrise.
The brightly shining sun claimed a distinct place in one corner of the work.
***
Sitting on the Practice Room floor, Ye Ji turned her work to show those gathered in the classroom.
The meaning didn’t need lengthy explanation.
“It felt like I was reborn…. It was that kind of vacation.”
The newly rising sun of a fresh dawn.
Just seeing that radiance was enough to sense what remarkable experiences filled Ye Ji’s vacation and what impression they left.
“You must have had quite an eventful vacation.”
Young nodded, contemplating Ye Ji’s work for a moment.
It was a piece so vivid it left an afterimage in the eye.
Young fell silent for a few seconds, lingering in that resonance, then turned her head.
She seemed careful to distribute her attention equally among students so as not to show obvious favoritism.
“All right then, last one. Kang Yura.”
Even at her words, Kang Yura’s gaze lingered on Ye Ji’s work.
“Yura, it’s your turn.”
“Oh… yes.”
Only then did Kang Yura pull out her own work.
Kang Yura’s painting looked like translucent glass.
As if standing before a mirror filled with steam.
A blurred silhouette reached out a hand toward the canvas.
To Ye Ji’s eyes, it looked like a self-portrait.
Kang Yura expressing herself.
“To be honest, I haven’t really changed much.”
Her distinctive flat, emotionless voice continued.
“But if one thing did change….”
After a pause, Kang Yura went on.
“I used to think there was only one path I had to take.”
She was a senior in high school.
Going abroad, enrolling in a prestigious art university in the United States.
To keep pace with those of matching caliber, she had believed that was her only path.
“Honestly, now I’m not sure anymore.”
Uncertainty. Something so foreign had entered her life.
But Kang Yura was smiling faintly.
For her, uncertainty was not a negative thing.
“You’ve gained so many possibilities and choices.”
At Young’s words, Kang Yura nodded.
“There’s no rush now, so I’m planning to think it through slowly.”
Of course, the adults around her would grow anxious.
After all, she was a high school senior.
A senior in the second semester, no less.
Considering something other than the direction she’d prepared for all this time.
Surely many people would say it was too late.
“I can choose what kind of person I want to become.”
Kang Yura spoke her thoughts calmly.
After seeing a completely different world through Ye Ji.
She had come to understand her own arrogance.
The reason she hadn’t risen above her current level wasn’t the absence of peers to match pace with.
It was simply that this was all she had been.
“You all had wonderful vacations.”
Young’s satisfied voice continued.
Right on cue, a delivery driver knocked on the classroom door.
“Korean chicken never gets old, no matter how many times you eat it.”
Wasn’t the excuse about feeding the students just that—an excuse? She probably just wanted to eat it herself.
Young, more eager than anyone to greet the food, rushed out and laid the delivered chicken in front of the students.
Thanks to that, the conversation that followed felt as light and carefree as a picnic.
With each piece of work lined up at the back of the classroom.
As they ate, everyone casually shared stories from their vacation one by one.
As they chattered on like that, the time for class to end drew near before they knew it.
Suddenly remembering something they’d forgotten while fooling around, Ye Ji asked again.
“Oh. By the way, what was that white cloth in here for anyway?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————