The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 96

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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 96.
“It’s definitely different.”
“…Do we have to draw like that to get first place once we’re in second year?”
“Are you crazy? If you’re going to draw at that level, you don’t even need to come to school.”
The whispers of first-year students drifted through the small indoor space.
Did they really think she wouldn’t hear them in this cramped room?
Pretending not to notice, Ye Ji gazed at the artwork as Hyun Min approached.
Again, she’d been one of the last to arrive.
“Everyone, once you’re done cleaning up, let’s all go grab some food together.”
Hyun Min gathered the class and posed the question, but the response was markedly different from last year.
“I’m so exhausted I could die. Let’s just order something to the classroom.”
“Oh, I have to go to cram school later. Ugh…”
“Still, we should eat something, we should…”
Last year, they’d all gone out together after the installation.
Indeed, second year approaching third-year entrance exams felt fundamentally different from first year.
Yet some things remained unchanged.
There was the bond Ye Ji and her classmates had forged through everything they’d experienced together.
Carving out time from their schedules, they’d gathered as one, consoling each other for their hardships and the trials still ahead.
And so the second Yeonsilzong came to an end.
***
Ye Ji, sitting in the studio, suddenly murmured a newfound realization.
“…It’s really all over.”
An uneventful, quiet ending giving way to an oddly serene daily life.
And what followed were anxieties and preparations for the future.
Da Hye laughed softly at Ye Ji’s murmur, unsure if this was right.
“That’s just how it normally is.”
“You’re the one tangled up with all these weird people, that’s all.”
Hyun Min chimed in as well.
Perhaps what her two friends said was true—this might be the ordinary life of a second-year high school student.
Daily life unfolded peacefully and steadily.
Yet paradoxically, this very peace manifested for Ye Ji as busyness.
There were simply too many things she’d gotten herself into.
An enormous aluminum canvas occupying nearly half of one side of the studio, stretching over two meters wide.
One misstep could spell disaster, so Ye Ji had even set up a ladder to work safely.
Moreover, recently from spraying so much while working, she’d even received additional fragrance samples from Ina.
The studio was saturated with the scent of Celiange’s new fragrance, almost clinging to Ye Ji’s skin.
Setting aside the circumstances entirely, it was a fragrance that suited her taste perfectly.
The sense of calm and freedom emanating from that scent gave her the feeling that her spirit was clearing all the way to its depths.
The process of transferring such emotion and feeling onto the canvas was nothing short of joyful.
“Mmm, hello Ye Ji?”
“Welcome, sir.”
Though special class instruction had ended, Young—still in Korea—occasionally dropped by the studio to observe Ye Ji’s work.
At first, Young had been surprised by Ye Ji’s method of working in silence without music, but had soon adapted.
The reverse was equally true.
Watching Young work with noise-canceling earphones on, enthusiastically completing sketch work, Ye Ji sometimes found herself baffled.
How could someone so full of energy produce such barren work?
It was simply curious.
In any case, the sculptural and installation art Young would create was composed based on Ye Ji’s work.
Young, observing Ye Ji’s piece gradually taking form, spoke.
“I asked whether we could use drainage facilities for the artwork installation, and they replied that temporary drainage can be made available.”
At Young’s words, Hyun Min leaned in close to check the email from the France side.
“…Can you read it?”
“Um, no. Could you hit the translator?”
At Hyun Min’s request, Young translated the webpage and handed it over.
As Young and Hyun Min discussed in concrete terms how to transform Ye Ji’s imagination into reality,
Ye Ji kept her focus entirely on the piece.
Once water droplets began falling gradually from above, Ye Ji’s distinctive thick, dynamic brushstrokes would be emphasized.
The dimensional thickness of the raised paint.
Water droplets gathering and trickling along its surface would add a crisp, refreshing clarity that suited a fragrance.
“Well then, I’m heading out of the country.”
Once the work direction was confirmed, Young departed for Paris, France first.
For department store pop-ups, it was standard practice to manufacture everything in advance and assemble it like a puzzle overnight.
Once Ye Ji’s piece was complete, they’d simply slot it into place and the artwork would be finished.
Young would handle the site well.
“Thank you so much. I’m counting on you.”
“No, I’m getting paid for this job too.”
Though Ye Ji felt grateful to him, Young seemed satisfied simply to have a foot in something interesting.
The fact that he was going to Paris for a collaboration with Goyo this time had already caused quite a stir among acquaintances.
How thrilling and delightful the curious murmurs of those around him had been.
Young felt more than adequately rewarded by that alone.
“Still…”
Well, it was fortunate he was such an unusual person.
Thanks to him, Ye Ji shed one worry and could focus on her work again.
Once the final exam ended and the second semester wound down, she was able to throw herself even more fully into the work.
Days passed in continued immersion like that.
Standing on the ladder, layering thick white paint for dimension, Ye Ji let out a breath.
“Phew…”
The pristine white reflection of light shimmering across rippling water.
Having rendered every last detail, Ye Ji descended the ladder with practiced ease.
That final brushstroke was the completion.
“…I’m counting on you.”
Ye Ji murmured toward the work, which now only needed to dry.
Now this piece would speak to the world.
That Goyo was no one you think she is, but simply a new figure with incomparable possibility.
***
Paris, the world’s foremost city of art and fashion.
Even there, there are places called the top three department stores.
Among them, Galeries Lafayette.
The beautiful building, its ceiling crowned by a stained-glass dome, was the pride and symbol of the place.
The vast main hall beneath the shared dome welcomed a variety of installations each season, delighting shoppers’ eyes.
And today, a new installation opened alongside Celiange’s pop-up store.
A newly added fragrance to Celiange’s perfume line.
[Respiro]
The fragrance, bearing an Italian name meaning breath, was Celiange’s first gender-neutral scent.
That fact alone drew attention, and many sought out Galeries Lafayette for fragrance sampling.
Those waiting for the opening run poured in from the front entrance.
The moment the doors opened, they couldn’t help but marvel at the magnificent scene of the hall, with its soaring ceiling over forty meters high.
And suspended at its center, positioned to be the first thing you saw, was Goyo’s new work.
“My goodness…”
A pond with the translucent clarity of glass spheres and a mysterious blue glow.
Delicate leaves spreading across its surface, and tiny white flower petals blooming from grasses.
As visitors’ eyes caught the arresting work and they stepped inside, fragrance next seized them.
“Is this the newly launched fragrance?”
“…It’s so good though?”
“Wow, what is this? Is this why there were no new products for so long?”
Fitting for Celiange’s recent targeting of younger demographics, the scent was refreshingly light, burden-free for young people to wear.
Stepping closer, one could see the enormous clear glass spheres suspended around the work, like beads.
As if they were dewdrops falling in a forest.
Water slowly trickled down along the wires suspending the glass spheres from above.
Water droplets gathered at the end of the suspended glass spheres, then fell one by one toward the artwork.
The droplets falling onto Ye Ji’s piece at the hall’s center gently scattered and spread outward.
As lighting enhanced the sight, the work generated an otherworldly shimmering atmosphere.
Lose yourself long enough in the work, and you’d soon find yourself captivated by the fragrance itself.
The white tea and pear, subtle soap-infused top note brushes past the nostrils, then the middle note stimulates the olfactory sense.
The restrained sweetness of cotton flower and orange blossom.
In the base notes that follow, sandalwood’s soft woody fragrance ultimately lingers.
Visitors devoted enough to fragrance to come for the opening run couldn’t withhold their admiration for this composition.
“It was worth the wait.”
“I only meant to sample, but…if you see something like this, you feel obligated to buy it out of courtesy, don’t you?”
“How much did they prepare and work toward this?”
Visitors had no way of knowing that installation art was a suddenly determined element.
The booth, prepared in white and soft blue tones with small plants, had been created before Goyo’s participation was finalized.
But perhaps because the work was done with such a clear and beautiful fragrance as its motif?
Goyo’s piece and the surrounding installations harmonized as if they were all one unified work.
The dreamlike pop-up store, with its varied fragrant allure, captivated all who came.
“Wow…”
“This is huge. Really.”
Even mere tourists who happened to be visiting began snapping photos, uttering unguarded exclamations of wonder.
It wasn’t just them.
Parisians with their snobbish bearing and discerning eyes, even department store staff, paused in their steps.
They too reflexively pulled out their mobile phones and took pictures.
Moreover, it didn’t end there.
Those enchanted by the pop-up store and drawn to Celiange could find excellent displays waiting in the boutique that sustained their anticipation.
At that very moment, Celiange’s location in Galeries Lafayette was displaying a painting of an oasis in the desert.
Goyo’s work, at once contrasting with and complementing the soft, moist impression of the hall’s installation, captured pristine, dreamlike nature.
And beyond that, not stifling or inconvenient clothing, but pieces you could coordinate anytime, anywhere with other clothes you already owned.
Effortless yet distinctive—Celiange’s new season collection, bearing the designer’s signature touches.
Soon shoppers’ hands grew insufficient, and long lines began forming before the boutique entrance.
The same held true at other Celiange locations.
Word spread rapidly via social media that Goyo’s work was being displayed in Paris’s other Celiange boutiques as well.
Even those with nothing to purchase came to Celiange from outside, eager to view the work.
Naturally, their eyes then drifted to the surrounding merchandise.
Those with means, surely, would purchase something they liked while they were already there viewing the work?
And if people had lined up to buy?
Shouldn’t one get it now before it sold out?
By the end of opening day, Celiange was in crisis—all prepared inventory had sold through.
Just three or four hours after opening the pop-up store.
This was, without question, a successful project.
***
At that same moment, in the Fradel Store at Galeries Lafayette.
Loud voices other than those of customers were erupting from the VIP Room within.
“What on earth is happening!”
Sylvie was crying out before Julien, unable to contain her frustration.
Ironically, today was also the day Julien and Fradel’s collaboration products launched.
Somehow the dates had aligned perfectly, and Sylvie felt her head might explode from multiple angles.
“Even so, there’s such a thing as business ethics! If there were more projects left, you shouldn’t have taken ours at least! You should have told us something!”
Sylvie’s protest was justified, leaving Julien with no choice but to sit in awkward silence.
Because Celiange had monopolized the attention, Fradel was desolate.
There were customers in the boutique, but even they had almost entirely stopped coming by mid-morning.
It seemed to be trending online reasonably enough…
“…Isn’t it a bit tacky?”
“If it were outright childish, at least it’d be charming.”
“It seems a bit… off.”
Those who saw the actual products left with disappointed assessments.
The displayed work by Julien in one corner of the boutique received not a glance from anyone.
Among the murmured comments, there was one remark that grated on Julien most of all.

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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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