I Became A Renowned Genius At My Arts High School - Chapter 243



Only Noblemtl

Episode 243. The Man and the Woman’s Circumstances (1)

“Ugh. It feels like the genre has suddenly changed.”

“But is this something we should get involved in?”

Unlike the excited Park Seon-hwa, Su-hyeon had a calm face.

“huh?”

“Nozomi’s circumstances are unfortunate, but what if Whitney has her own unspoken circumstances? We don’t have the right to stir that up.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

Park Seon-hwa rubbed the tip of her nose, which had turned red from the cold wind, and made an embarrassed expression.

“I think I should leave Whitney aside for now and meet Nozomi one more time.”

Su-hyeon nodded.

“Seonhwa.”

“uh?”

“If it’s okay, would you like to go with me?”

“me too?”

“I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Well, it won’t be difficult. I just have time to spare.”

“Then let’s go now. Oh, let me contact you first.”

Soo-hyun immediately found the contact number for the accommodation she had received from Nozomi and pressed the call button on her phone. She had to meet her and confirm a few things.

***

Nozomi was staying in a shabby room in Brooklyn. She looked surprised, as if she didn’t know that Soohyun would come to see her again.

“I brought a friend with me today.”

The three sat at a small table in the lobby of the hotel. To break the awkward atmosphere, Su-hyeon introduced Park Seon-hwa first.

“Actually, this friend said he saw Nozomi at Whitney’s studio last time.”

“Oh my god.”

When I brought up the events of that day, Nozomi blushed and slightly lowered her head.

“I was embarrassed. Things were so urgent that I didn’t have time to think about what was right or wrong that day.”

“No, no. I heard the general situation from Soo-hyun. Oh my, if it were me, I would have done more. I would have just laid down and screamed. Anyway, you came all the way to New York, holding on to the last thread of hope, so what can you do if things don’t work out?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Nozomi looked even more listless than a few days ago.

From what I heard, it seems that even after breaking up with Soo-hyun, he was chasing her in every possible way to get her paintings recognized.

Unfortunately, there was no significant income.

“Actually, I wanted to meet you because I have two things I wanted to ask you.”

Soo-hyun looked at Nozomi warmly and said.

“Two? What are they?”

“Well, first of all, I heard that the last time you went to Whitney’s studio, you handed her an envelope.”

When Soo-hyeon glanced at Park Seon-hwa, Nozomi immediately understood and nodded.

“that’s right.”

“Could you tell me what was in there? If it’s difficult… … .”

“That was a picture of Takeshi. It was a picture of him and me together.”

“Takeshi’s photo?”

Soo-Hyeon tilted her head at the unexpected answer.

“in fact…….”

Nozomi added, frowning.

“It’s not like Whitney was completely unaware of the painting from the beginning.”

Su-hyeon and Park Seon-hwa met eyes at the same time.

It was the moment when the whole story of the incident was revealed once again.

“… … That’s strange.”

“It wasn’t positive, but it wasn’t negative either.”

After a while.

Su-hyeon and Park Seon-hwa nodded with serious faces after hearing the whole story.

When Nozomi first submitted her paintings, Whitney’s gallery gave her a very ambiguous response.

The reply was that it is difficult to tell whether something is genuine or not just from a photo.

It was a natural reaction to say that the painting needed to be seen in person, as it did not have a proper signature or certificate from the artist.

But if you turn it around, it also sounds like they are considering the possibility that this painting is genuine.

If it had been a completely nonsensical painting, it would have been obvious from the photograph alone that it wasn’t painted by Whitney.

“The Whitney Gallery said they wanted to know who owned the painting. They also said they wanted to meet him in person.”

However, when Nozomi revealed that she was the owner of the painting, the gallery did not respond for a while. The only answer they gave was that the painting was not genuine.

“There’s something strange about it. If you had denied it from the beginning, you wouldn’t have known, but you said you wanted to check and then denied it. Of course, if the gallery says they were just being careful, I can’t really refute that.”

Nozomi let out a long sigh and shook her head.

Judging from the way he was pressing his temples, it seemed like he was quite stressed out from this work.

“There is no evidence, but the circumstantial evidence is very serious. Right?”

Park Seon-hwa displayed her unique ability to empathize and agreed with Nozomi’s words.

Soo-hyeon watched the two of them silently for a while before opening her mouth.

“Then, the card contained a photo, and there’s one more thing I’d like to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“The painting you brought to New York. Could you show the other two and the previous painting again? And to this friend.”

Su-hyeon pointed at Park Seon-hwa again.

As Park Seon-hwa and Nozomi blinked, Soo-hyun smiled brightly.

“This guy knows Whitney’s paintings very well.”

“ah.”

Nozomi, who understood what was being said, suddenly stood up from her seat.

“I’ll go up and get it right now. Just a moment.”

While Nozomi was away, Park Seon-hwa looked at Soo-hyun with a very nervous expression.

“Hey, you’re not like I’m some kind of authenticity expert.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t ask you to take responsibility.”

“But why?”

“I saw that painting. Of course, it was only one.”

Soohyun shrugged her shoulders and said.

“however?”

“It’s definitely different from the picture Whitney is drawing now.”

“Hmm. So is it far from the real thing? Or maybe I was wondering if there are any similarities in the other two points?”

“No. More importantly, I mean that painting. It was pretty good.”

“uh?”

Park Seon-hwa tilted her head at Soo-hyeon’s words, which were still unclear.

“It was a really well-drawn picture. It was a picture that required a lot of practice and thought, not just talent.”

“okay?”

“I actually felt that Whitney’s paintings from back then were better than her paintings now.”

“for a moment.”

Park Seon-hwa noticed the subtle nuance and furrowed her eyebrows.

“So Hyun, you think that painting is Whitney’s work? Even though it’s completely different in style from the current painting?”

“The painting style is different.”

Soo-hyun shook her head and said.

“But it’s not impossible to change your painting style.”

“What is the basis for this?”

“The topics overlap.”

Soohyun said.

“subject?”

“Well, relatively old paintings, that is, works from two years ago, are an exception. The paintings that you have, such as , , and , are subjects that are as new as Whitney’s changed style.”

“however?”

“I’m talking about the latest works I saw in the studio today.”

“uh.”

“There was a very small hint there.”

“A hint?”

“The work that everyone admired today was the series, right? But the title of the painting that Nozomi showed me was also .”

“What? Why are you talking about that now?”

Park Seon-hwa said with her eyes wide open.

“I should have checked more. I only saw one of Nozomi’s drawings. Anyway, if the themes of the other drawings overlap, aside from dreams, wouldn’t the possibility of it being a coincidence decrease? Of course, there are other reasons.”

“What now?”

“There’s that blue color that Whitney uses.”

“uh.”

“That tone was also in the painting that Nozomi had.”

A strange sense of homogeneity despite the different painting styles.

At first, Soo-hyun tilted her head, but soon discovered several similarities between Whitney’s painting and Nozomi’s painting.

The habit of using blue with a hint of yellow and the theme of his work.

Small habits that were intentionally hidden but gave off the scent of being from the same artist, like the direction of the touch or the marks left by the brush as it lingered.

Of course, this could not be a decisive clue, nor could it be a tool to pressure someone. I had no intention of doing so.

but.

‘I guess it feels like things have gotten tangled up in a strange place.’

The more I listened to the story, the more I felt that there were no perpetrators, only victims.

If all this stems from some misunderstanding, isn’t there a way to fix it?

It seemed that if I just thought about it a little, I would be able to come up with a way to solve Nozomi’s problem without harming Whitney.

Of course, this action would only make sense after Nozomi was convinced that all three pieces of art she brought were Whitney’s.

So, Soo-hyun asked Nozomi to show him the painting she had brought, and also asked Park Seon-hwa, who knew Whitney’s paintings inside and out, to help her judge them.

Anyway, after a while.

Nozomi came down holding a painting.

“This is.”

“Hmm.”

The other two points were even more striking than the first painting I saw. They had a similar theme to the new painting I had seen in Whitney’s studio earlier.

“I think people draw their nightshades like trees.”

Park Seon-hwa nodded vigorously at Soo-hyeon’s words.

“Yes. It grows, but in the end, its essence remains the same. So, it’s about expanding while going around and around a certain innate center, right? In the case of writers, it’s also difficult to change the subject matter of their interests or gaze.”

“That’s right. It’s similar.”

Su-hyeon nodded.

For unknown reasons, Whitney attempted a drastic transformation, starting two years ago, by painting subjects she had never painted before in a completely new way.

But perhaps because she was so prolific, as her material gradually ran out, Whitney seemed to be revisiting themes she had dealt with in depth in the past. In the process, habits from her past paintings popped out.

But this is also only a feeling.

If Whitney, the person involved, had said that she didn’t know about it, or that someone had figured out her characteristics and created a plausible early work, it would have been back to square one.

But, I feel more confident now than before.

The hint was in the photo inside the envelope Nozomi handed me.

“You showed me Takeshi’s picture because you thought Whitney might recognize him?”

Su-hyeon confirmed the question.

“Oh, that’s right. When Takeshi gave me the painting, he said that it was a painting he received directly from Whitney. If that’s true, Whitney must have thought that Takeshi was the owner of the painting. But since I came forward as the owner of the painting, I wanted to clear up any misunderstandings about that.”

Again two possibilities came to mind.

There is a possibility that misunderstandings arose because Nozomi’s English was limited and her intentions were not conveyed properly.

Another is Takeshi, he had some circumstances with Whitney, and that may have kept Whitney quiet.

Maybe it’s both.

“Hmm.”

Su-hyeon, who had been thinking about various things for a moment, had her eyes sparkling.

“Oh, if you have time, would you like to meet someone with me now?”

“Huh? Who?”

“I think there might be a way to sell paintings even if it’s not Whitney.”

“Huh? This picture?”

“This painting is quite good in itself, and there is someone in New York right now who can appreciate its value.”

Su-hyeon smiled brightly.

I forgot about it.

The existence of Walter, a man who is always waiting for Soo-hyeon’s call.