The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 9

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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 9
“You thought it through well. I’d better get going.”
After scrolling through his phone for a while, Hyun Min stood up first.
Ye Ji, who had been crunching through the ice in her cup, nodded.
“Sure, sorry for keeping you. Thanks for looking out for me anyway.”
“Just make sure you fix your piece properly.”
With that, Hyun Min hurried off.
“What’s got him in such a rush all of a sudden? Unbelievable.”
Da Hye spoke as if Hyun Min was being reckless, but Ye Ji’s mind was wholly occupied with her work.
She stared at a photograph she’d taken in advance of her damaged piece, sinking into thought.
Flower petals submerged in water.
Above them, the canvas, brutally slashed.
A situation she’d never experienced before and never could have imagined.
Ye Ji was genuinely rattled.
She wanted, more than anything, to revive the ruined work.
She wanted to land a blow on whoever had pulled this stunt.
This yearning mixed with the images swirling in her head, leaving her in a fog of confusion.
Flowers, water, canvas, slashed, yearning.
Lost in thought, Ye Ji’s gaze, which had been fixed vacantly on empty space, suddenly stopped on one spot.
A bouquet placed beside Da Hye’s chair.
“Ah, this… Actually, your parents gave us this. They must have prepared it beforehand.”
A congratulatory bouquet beneath a ruined work.
It seemed Ye Ji’s parents had simply given it to Da Hye, not wanting to add salt to the wound.
Da Hye had brought it along, feeling awkward about setting it beneath her own piece.
But to Ye Ji’s eyes, it was different.
Already, the bouquet appeared to her as an idea taking shape.
“No, if you brought that for me, give it back for a minute.”
“Huh? Sure.”
As Da Hye handed over the Flower Basket, Ye Ji examined the flowers from every angle.
The fresh scent of grass and the sweet fragrance of blooms mingled together.
…….
Ye Ji plucked a flower and held it up to the image of her painting on her phone screen.
…!
In that instant, a single image flashed through Ye Ji’s mind.
A new way to express her intention perfectly.
A way to transform a flat work into three dimensions, to expand that world.
And to send a warning to whoever created this hellish situation.
An inspiration to complete a work in this new way.
“I’m heading out too. I’ll start working on it tomorrow, so stop by if you get a chance.”
Ye Ji rose from her seat, her mind teeming with swirling thoughts.
***
Most students barely stirred at the news that their works could be revised.
A few went to make minor touch-ups, but no one made any major changes.
The reason was brutally practical.
It was better for their grades to prepare for the upcoming Final Exam.
Da Hye felt the same way.
Revisions would be endless, and it was wiser to focus on improving her academic grades.
These days, most universities were shifting to give more weight to academic records over practical work.
When she first started painting, she hadn’t imagined it would be like this, but…….
‘Still, if I get into a good university. Then I’ll really be able to paint what I want.’
For now, this was just a time to build stepping stones toward the future.
Every adult had said so, and Da Hye believed them.
But still, she had to see what painting Ye Ji was working on.
“……Huh?”
Driven by friendship to the Yerim Art Center, Da Hye stopped in her tracks at the crisp floral scent.
A delicate fragrance of flowers drifted throughout the entire exhibition hall.
As she moved toward Section A, the scent grew stronger, as if she’d stepped into a flower shop.
“That must be it.”
“Is that the one that got damaged?”
Da Hye made her way through the clusters of murmuring people toward Ye Ji.
The day after the exhibition opened, rumors of the vandalism had drawn a larger crowd than usual.
“Wow….”
Da Hye caught her breath at the sight of Ye Ji in the center of the crowd.
Ye Ji was working with dozens of Flower Baskets placed in front of her piece.
Given the word “revision,” Da Hye had naturally assumed she’d glue the torn canvas back together and cover the spot with Oil Painting.
But there was no brush in sight, let alone any paint.
“What is all this?”
“Oh, you’re here?”
As Da Hye approached, Ye Ji greeted her warmly.
The gap where the work had been torn.
Rather than filling it in, Ye Ji had left it even wider open.
“I wanted to make it crystal clear that this act actually ended up helping me.”
She had no intention of letting petty provocation shake her confidence.
Ye Ji had deliberately magnified the situation into something grander and more brilliant.
“What did you put inside?”
Da Hye noticed something wedged between the torn canvas edges.
Looking closer, it was green Floral Foam, the kind used in flower arrangements.
“Ah.”
Understanding Ye Ji’s intention, an exclamation burst from Da Hye’s lips.
True to its title, “Full Bloom.”
Ye Ji intended to completely reimagine the work.
“Now, real flowers will actually bloom from here.”
Ye Ji inserted a single rose, its petals unfurling luxuriously, into the work above.
A pale yellow blossom that felt strangely unified with the flowers submerged in water within the canvas.
The effect was as if the flowers that had been drowning underwater had finally pierced through the canvas and emerged.
To a wider world, higher still.
“Do you know what the Yellow Rose symbolizes?”
Ye Ji smiled wryly as she posted a sheet of paper beneath the caption bearing her name and the work’s title.
The meaning of the Yellow Rose.
1. Perfect Achievement
2. Jealousy
“But, this….”
Da Hye giggled at the words on the paper, but then spoke carefully, as if something was bothering her.
If she filled the gap with fresh flowers, it would certainly be beautiful, but there was a problem.
The Floral Foam would sustain them for a while, but there were limits.
“They’ll wilt.”
The Final Judging would wrap up on the day the exhibition ended.
She’d need to maintain it for more than a week.
At Da Hye’s worried tone, Ye Ji attached an Acrylic Board to the bottom of the work.
“I know.”
Later, the wilted petals would fall helplessly onto that acrylic surface below.
With the groundwork complete, Ye Ji smiled.
This exhibition, which should have ended long ago, had been stretched out.
Ye Ji wanted to capture within her work the very passage of time that everyone had wasted.
To express dissatisfaction within an unjust process through her art.
It was the most elegant form of protest she could manage.
“That’s all part of my work.”
***
At the school exhibition held last week at the Yerim Art Center, there was a student whose original approach captivated viewers.
That student was Ye Ji, a first-year student in the Cheongrim Art High School Department of Fine Arts.
On the first day of the exhibition, part of the canvas was torn by someone’s hand, (abbreviated)
and by filling the tear with fresh Yellow Roses, the artist infused the work with new three-dimensionality and vitality.
As time passed, the roses wilted and fell, and through this change, the artist conveyed the message that jealousy and malice ultimately destroy everything.
However, with the culprit still unidentified,
Cheongrim’s response in protecting young students’ dreams and hopes has drawn intense attention from many in the field.
— Culture Seoul, Reporter Kim Min Su
***
Ye Ji did not complete her work all at once.
Revising a work that had already been made public.
She deliberately diffused floral fragrance with a Diffuser and carefully selected only fully bloomed flowers to insert into the work.
She had turned the entire process into a form of Performance Art.
“Did you see the article about you?”
Through this process, Ye Ji’s work had become the talk of the town.
A student whose work was damaged in a mysterious incident.
Even the process of rebirthing that work while staying focused on her studies.
Hyun Min’s words made Ye Ji nod.
“Yeah, I wasn’t sure if he was really a reporter, but he actually was.”
Hyun Min chuckled at her response and watched as Ye Ji put the finishing touches on her work.
Already, there were quite a few people gathered around Ye Ji.
Today was the last day of the exhibition.
The day the real Final Judging would take place, and the day she had to complete her revisions.
“The school was trying to brush it off, but the situation just blew up too much and caught everyone off guard?”
“Only the school? I’m still in shock myself….”
Da Hye, who had been watching Ye Ji’s work, began chattering away.
“Seriously. Ye Ji. Are you a genius or what! How did you even think of something like that?”
Already, flowers of varying heights and sizes had densely filled the torn canvas gap.
It seemed complete, but one thing was still missing.
“We’re here to change the lighting.”
Just then, the lighting technician arrived, and Ye Ji jumped to her feet and started giving directions.
“Move it a bit to the side, this way….”
Very subtly.
As Ye Ji adjusted the angle inch by inch, gasps of admiration rippled through the crowd.
The light rendered in paint within the canvas and the ceiling’s light poured down from the same direction.
Reality and the virtual space within the painting.
As both lights aligned in the same direction, the flowers inserted through the torn canvas gap cast shadows in that same direction.
The moment the light aligned perfectly was almost thrilling.
“That’s it.”
Ye Ji smiled, finally satisfied.
Now it finally felt worthy of its name.
Ye Ji looked at her work with contentment.
When she was Katrin, she had only done painting.
She hadn’t thought there was a particular reason, but now she understood.
‘I couldn’t see it properly.’
Three-dimensional sculpture and Installation Art, which required spatial adjustment, were beyond Katrin’s capabilities.
Even flat works had been so difficult to perceive all at once.
In that physical condition, a work that harmonized broadly with space was impossible.
But now it was different.
She could create works as grand, expansive, and towering as she wished.
Any kind of art.
[Ah, attention all visitors to the Yerim Art Center and students.]
Then the announcement echoed through the speakers.
[The exhibition will conclude shortly, and the Final Judging will begin. Please exit before then…….]
“Already this late? You’re all done now, right?”
Da Hye asked, helping tidy the area around the piece.
Ye Ji looked over her work once more and nodded.
“Yeah, I’m done.”
Now there was truly no regret, no lingering doubt.
As Ye Ji gathered the remaining flowers and held them, she suddenly stopped.
“……Ji An.”
That bone-headed bastard was blocking her path.
“You did well.”
At the unexpected compliment, even Da Hye, who had been bristling, froze.
What’s with him all of a sudden? she wondered, but the predictable insults came right after.
“You should just become a florist and open a flower shop later. Playing the victim, with your petty tricks, you think that makes you something?”
Wow, this kid had no shame.
Ye Ji couldn’t help but admire his sheer audacity internally.
He created the mess himself, yet Ye Ji couldn’t fathom why he was so hell-bent on this vendetta.
An ordinary kid from an ordinary family suddenly showing talent.
Was that really such an unbearable, horrifying thing to acknowledge?
“Hyun Min. Da Hye. You two should dial it back.”
He even added a barb toward Ye Ji’s friends.
“Why are you leeching off such a nobody? You’d be better off backing me. It might actually do something for your lives.”
At how absurd Ji An’s remarks were, Hyun Min burst out laughing.
Meanwhile, Hyun Min grabbed Da Hye, who looked ready to slug Ji An.
Watching the two people he’d just insulted, Ye Ji felt her blood boil too.
What was so great about his background, his family, that he could look down on people like this?
“Thanks for the advice.”
At Ye Ji’s casual reply, Ji An’s expression twisted.
“But you should ask yourself: what do you actually know? What are you actually capable of, talking like that?”
She was already 100% sure of him.
Ye Ji had no intention of letting this matter slide.
Whatever he thought he knew about her, she wasn’t about to let him walk away thinking the world was that easy.
As Ye Ji passed by Ji An, she handed him one of the flower bunches she’d been holding.
More precisely, the flower heads had all been removed, leaving only the stems—a bunch of garbage.
‘Better start preparing for your own head to roll, you waste of a human.’

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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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