I Became A Renowned Genius At My Arts High School - Chapter 184



Only Noblemtl

Episode 184. The Sign of Power (3)

Maria’s face turned bright red. Jacqueline burst out laughing.

“Pfft.”

The sound was small because it was something she had been holding back, but it was enough to roll Maria’s eyes.

“What are you doing? Are you mocking me right now? Ha, are you insulting my sincerity with such an obvious lie?”

Maria was confident.

The larks who brought the news testified that Jacqueline first appeared in the latter half of the art fair.

It was definitely a part that had been verified, and a fact that could be revealed with just a few questions. Maria puffed out her chest.

“Jacqueline, what did you promise?”

“A promise?”

“I wonder what I promised this newbie who knows nothing to make him agree to a lie that will be exposed in an instant.”

Maria’s eyes sparkled greedily.

Overflowing self-confidence.

So, I couldn’t help but notice Frankie’s face shaking his head vigorously across from me.

“What did I promise?”

But Jacqueline passed the ball to Soo-hyun.

“It doesn’t seem like complicated English, but I can’t understand it.”

Soo-hyun sighed softly and said.

“But if I try my best to understand, um… … Maria, I think you’re misunderstanding something. Jacqueline and I are meeting for the third time today.”

“Ah, so this is a confession.”

Maria shook her head and laughed.

“You said that you two met separately at a different time, apart from this art fair. Did you decide then? To get Jacqueline’s support?”

Maria wrote a novel.

He didn’t forget to glance over to see if the reporter from earlier was writing down these words correctly.

I felt a thrill as I imagined the provocative headlines for the articles that would be published tomorrow.

In fact, Maria didn’t know how great the new person in front of her was. She didn’t really care.

To be honest, the first time I saw him, I just talked to him because he had a striking appearance and seemed to be doing a good job.

But looking back, I didn’t realize how good it was. That the proud Jacqueline was interested in a newcomer. So no matter which way the conclusion came out, Maria had nothing to lose.

If you steal this newcomer from Jacqueline, it will be a hot topic whether you steal it or not.

If I could just break her nose with that, if that would raise my own status, I would be full for a while without having to eat. But.

“It’s true that we met separately, but the order was wrong.”

Su-hyeon’s soft voice rang in Maria’s excited ears.

“I met Jacqueline before the art fair opened.”

“what?”

Maria tilted her head, frowning.

Where on earth did that puppy come from? Those who had bonded with Jacqueline had never done anything that was irritating to her. But this ignorant New York rookie had been blurting out irritating words since a while ago.

“It was a cafe in Soho.”

Maria’s eyes became quite fierce, but Su-hyeon continued speaking without being intimidated.

“I was looking for a motif for a new work, and Jacqueline came to me and told me various stories. I was inspired by the story of that day and created ‘New York’s Gaze.’”

“her.”

Maria laughed loudly.

The anger that had been rising gradually reached the top of my head. My reasoning was slowly failing. All I could feel was a burning anger that I had to properly suppress the rascal who kept talking back.

Maria held back what little smile she had left.

“You met by chance at a cafe in Soho and got inspiration for your work? That’s a plausible excuse. It’s a pretty good drama. But.”

Maria looked around as if asking for consent.

“If it was really a chance encounter, shouldn’t it have ended after that one time? But let’s look at reality. Jacqueline, who you met by chance in Soho, happened to come to the Big Wave Art Fair again by chance, and then she happened to find you again and continued her relationship. You wouldn’t want to add the old adjective “fateful encounter” to such a contrived story, would you?”

The atmosphere suddenly became cold.

So Maria thought her words had worked, but somehow she felt strange about the focused gaze.

Everyone was looking at him with pitiful eyes.

“It could be fate.”

Su-hyeon smiled brightly.

“But it wasn’t just a coincidence. Jacqueline said there were no coincidences. She said she came to me after seeing my article in MoreArt, and that it was something she did on her own. Anyway.”

Su-hyeon strode towards the workbench.

“Jacqueline’s important role in the work is reflected in the work itself. Those who have come here before have already heard, but I will tell you, Maria, the secret of this work that Jacqueline discovered. Would you please take a look at the windows painted on the buildings?”

Now Maria’s eyes were dull.

It was clear that the sunflower didn’t know who he was, what his position was, or what he could do. That’s why he was able to talk so thoughtlessly.

Normally, whether you know it or not, you can just ignore it, it’s a speck of dust. But right now, the problem is that so many people are focused on it. I want to keep my mouth shut, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

“shit.”

Maria mustered up her last bit of strength and shook her overheated head.

The initial confidence had evaporated. Now, how would I get out of this crisis? What excuse would be the most plausible? My head was filled with calculations on how to minimize embarrassment and damage.

Unfortunately, no good answer came to mind.

***

“congratulations!”

“You all really worked hard!”

“This is real.”

The day after the closing ceremony.

Taylors members congratulated each other with joyful screams as they received the last issue of MoreArt newsletter.

More Art, which observed the trend of visitors during the ten days of the art fair, introduced popular works, and published interviews, planned a special page in its final issue to summarize the event and award prizes to selected works and artists.

Grand Prix, Special Prize, and New Star Award given to works that have proven to be a hot topic.

Taylor’s attention was clearly focused on the New Star Award.

Despite Maria’s poor standing, her bet with Frankie was still valid, and tensions were high as the outcome would determine whether she would be accepted into the Rockefeller Art Fund starting in the summer.

however.

“We won the New Star Award.”

“Besides, the special article is the longest.”

“You wrote each one with great care. Oh my gosh, isn’t this the article that was said to have been shortened last time?”

“I think that’s right? The reporter’s name is Jennifer! Oh! That’s the reporter from back then!”

“Wow, so this means we’re entering the Rockefeller Contest?”

“Frankie, that’s going to take a toll.”

The joy of being noticed, the satisfaction of being recognized, and the exhilaration of having suppressed the Frankies, who had been constantly causing trouble big and small, with their skills, all flashed across everyone’s faces for a moment.

“But what happened to that Frankie guy?”

“That’s not what I said yesterday.”

“I didn’t know Maria would treat me like that. It was shocking.”

“That’s right. On the other hand, it was really tough. It seemed like his mentality was completely broken.”

“So is this slump going to last a long time?”

As expected from kind and gentle guys, they even showed concern for Frankie, who had been a thorn in their side.

And then, Peter, the most outspoken of them all, opened his mouth.

“We met separately last night anyway.”

“Who?”

“Frankie?”

“Yeah. He got dumped, you know. And in public.”

Did it look like that?

Su-hyeon tilted her head.

Yesterday, after finishing the explanation of the work ‘New York Gaze’ and revealing the before and after of the work, Maria’s complexion suddenly worsened.

In fact, Soo-Hyeon had a hard time understanding why Maria was so excited and why she was showing feelings bordering on obsession with her work, but it turned out that there was a long-standing bad relationship between them.

Frankie, who was in the midst of that tangled web of relationships, was sacrificed as a target for Maria’s anger.

Maria scolded Frankie, saying that she was very disappointed, saying that she had been bragging about bringing in a promising new talent, but in fact she had been trying to steal the person who was working with Jacqueline.

And then, he made a very brief expression of regret, saying that he had been blinded and deafened by hearing wrong information, and hurriedly left the place.

Frankie, who suddenly became the culprit of this incident, was speechless and just trembled, and Peter must have seen him as a pitiful man who had been heartbroken.

“I felt like I wanted to comfort you regardless of the outcome. I know better than anyone how heartbreaking a breakup is.”

Peter, who recently experienced a breakup, felt a sense of empathy and gave validity to yesterday’s incident.

He said that he bought Frankie a drink and told him to forget about Maria, but it turned out that there had been a minor misunderstanding.

“Maria approached me a few times in the past. That’s also why Frankie had ill feelings toward me. But I also feel wronged. You can’t do anything about your natural charm. Being popular with girls isn’t something you can achieve through effort.”

“Wait a minute. I’ve been wondering about this for a while now.”

Su-hyeon cut him off and shook her head.

“Are you sure Maria liked you? Did she ever say anything like that?”

“Hey. It’s hard for a woman to say something like that out loud. But she said she wanted to support me financially, and she kept asking me about the meaning of love in my work. There’s a feeling, you know? A feeling. Oh, of course I flatly rejected her. I knew Maria was dating Frankie, but I didn’t want to get involved. That’s why I cleared up Frankie’s misunderstanding. It’s true that Maria approached me, but I rejected her. Haha.”

I’m sure this is a false alarm.

Su-hyeon frowned slightly.

If we look at the pattern, Maria had a habit of approaching new guys that Jacqueline was interested in, and it’s likely that she approached Peter and Frankie for the same reason.

It was unknown why Peter felt that it was a romantic interest between the opposite sex, but it seemed that it might be because his senses were particularly developed in that area that he was creating works themed around love, so it seemed better to leave it alone until it was nothing serious.

“So anyway, how did things turn out?”

Jessie was curious about the rest of the story, and Peter concluded the conversation by saying that Frankie had also learned a lot from this incident, and that he would recover from his slump soon, so all he had to do was wait.

Anyway, the bet is off, and art must be eternal.

“Okay. Then we can start preparing for the contest in the summer.”

“We have to have a party before that.”

“Yeah, we won the New Star Award! And we all sold quite a few pieces of work.”

The topic changed.

The Taylors were excitedly planning their next goal.

“Phew. If it had been a gallery, it would have been promoted a bit more, but that’s a shame.”

“But isn’t it a good thing that we get to keep all the artwork fees instead of giving them to the gallery?”

“That’s right. By the way, Peter, you can probably get a new house now, right?”

“Yeah, in terms of quantity, your work has sold the most. With that, you should have no problem finding a room.”

“I signed the contract yesterday anyway. Hehe.”

“Really? Where?”

“It’s close by. While we’re on the subject, I’ll invite you. Let’s have a celebration party there.”

“Can we all fit in there?”

“Well, I guess you could just crumple it up here and there? Instead, you have to give me one gift each for each place I provide.”

“what?”

“What gift?”

“I just moved, so there are a lot of things missing from my house. Like toilet paper, dishes, food, and a bed.”

“Wow, then what do you have?”

“A bed? You mean a bed? Have you lost your conscience, Peter?”

Peter and the Taylors members were happily chatting away as they walked away. Su-hyeon, who was following them with a smile, suddenly stopped walking.

“Uh. Sorry, I think I’ll have to stop by later.”

“why?”

“What’s going on?”

“Is it because of the gift? Hey, you can ignore that.”

“No, that’s not it. I just had to go somewhere urgently.”

Su-hyeon shook her head and held up her cell phone.

There, a message from Jacqueline was sparkling.