7
## Chapter 7. The Results Announcement
The incident of a foreign student entering a Korean arts gifted school through the regular admissions process and
graduating as the top-ranked student had caused quite a stir at the time.
Why hadn't he remembered it?
'It probably faded from public attention pretty quickly.'
Several broadcasting stations had apparently tried to interview her.
But she consistently ignored every approach, and before long, the public's attention shifted elsewhere.
Besides...
'She never really made a huge name for herself in the art world.'
To begin with, Kim Seungho had never been obsessed with finishing first.
Who said the top student at an arts high school was guaranteed to become the greatest artist?
Someone could enter as valedictorian and quietly disappear without ever attracting attention.
Just as someone could rank first at a science gifted school and end up working in the restaurant business ten years
later.
Life was unpredictable.
Seungho's priorities hadn't changed.
Finish the interview without incident.
Go home and eat fried chicken with his father.
Report the results to his tutor.
Then follow his mother's orders to visit Daejeon the following week and send her a list of everything he wanted to eat.
With the first task before him, he confidently walked into the interview room.
"Good afternoon. Candidate number thirty-two."
"Alright. Have a seat."
As soon as he entered, Seungho quietly scanned the faces of the interviewers.
He wondered whether there was anyone he recognized.
There was.
And it happened to be the one person he would rather not have met here.
'Professor Ahn Youngsik.'
They hadn't known each other personally in his previous life, but Seungho knew exactly who he was.
A professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the Korea National University of Arts.
One of the most notoriously ill-tempered figures in the Korean art world.
Yet despite that, students lined up hoping to take his classes.
His skills spoke for themselves.
'No... maybe this is actually better. He only cares about ability.'
His tutor had drilled one thing into him countless times.
The better your painting is, the harsher the questions become.
So don't panic.
"Before we discuss your work, there's something I'd like to ask first."
The first question came from Ahn Youngsik.
It was so unexpected that it caught even the well-prepared Seungho off guard.
"If another applicant produced a painting similar to yours during yesterday's practical exam, how would you prove your
work wasn't influenced by theirs?"
It was a question that had never once come up during all the mock interviews he'd practiced with his tutor.
Perhaps the direction of the interview would be decided by this answer alone.
---
After asking the question, Ahn Youngsik carefully observed the applicant's reaction.
'He looked sharp enough from his painting. At least he's not showing any signs of panic.'
This applicant had offered an interpretation unlike anyone else's.
Personally, Ahn had given him the highest score.
He suspected most of the other judges had done the same.
Still...
One tiny doubt had prevented him from finalizing his evaluation.
Another applicant from the same examination room had submitted a conceptually similar painting.
To clear up that final uncertainty, he had used one of the judges' optional questions.
'If he's truly innocent, he'll answer without hesitation.'
There was a clear difference between someone confused by the intent of the question...
and someone who panicked because they had something to hide.
After interviewing countless students, Ahn was confident he could tell the difference.
However...
"I believe the originality of a work depends on how honestly its creator can stand behind it."
The applicant instantly understood the purpose of the question.
Then answered smoothly.
Ahn had never encountered anyone like that during a high school entrance interview.
"Another applicant may have interpreted the theme similarly or chosen similar subject matter, but I can confidently say
that the only thing that influenced the completion of my painting was my own personal experience."
This wasn't the empty confidence many applicants displayed.
It was the quiet certainty of someone with absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
Ahn nearly moved on to the next question before catching himself.
He lightly nudged Seong Iljun beside him.
"What experiences helped you create this painting?"
The follow-up question had been planned in advance.
A way to confirm their judgment.
But beyond that...
Every judge in the room had become genuinely curious about this student's story.
"When I first heard the theme, 'The moment when the beginning and end of life meet,' I realized that life itself is
nothing more than countless beginnings and endings woven together."
Life constantly demanded that people step into something new.
For him,
the greatest turning point had been deciding to devote himself to art.
"What surprised me after making such a drastic decision was realizing that everything I'd accumulated until then still
helped me somehow. For example..."
As the applicant spoke eloquently,
Ahn Youngsik was reminded of his own university students.
More specifically,
he remembered himself passionately lecturing to them while they stared back with vacant expressions.
"This is the kind of work I create.
This piece started from this idea and developed like this.
The moment someone asks, those explanations should come naturally.
Understand?"
It was the minimum requirement for surviving as an artist.
And this boy,
who hadn't even entered high school yet,
already possessed it.
"Alright. That's enough for this question."
Ahn interrupted at the right moment.
There was no longer any need to investigate the similarity between the two paintings.
He had already decided the painting deserved its score.
"Now then... shall we begin the real interview?"
Of course,
that was one thing.
The interview score was another matter entirely.
The rumor that stronger paintings attracted harsher interviews hadn't appeared out of nowhere.
---
After the interview ended,
Seungho waited until he reached the stairwell before finally releasing the breath he'd been holding.
"What kind of high school interview is this intense?"
What Seungho didn't realize...
was that he himself had dramatically raised the interviewers' expectations.
And because of that,
the applicants interviewed after him would face tougher questioning as well.
Regardless,
the third-stage camp was finally over.
Now all that remained was waiting for the results.
He was about to head home with mixed feelings when someone called out to him.
"Seungho! Finished already?"
Kang Geunseong,
who had completed his interview earlier,
was waving from a shaded bench.
They had already exchanged phone numbers.
Why was he still here?
"What are you doing? Aren't you going home?"
"My mom's picking me up, but she's running late."
"I see."
With nothing to do before lunchtime,
Seungho sat across from him and they chatted about their interviews.
After hearing Seungho's very first interview question,
Geunseong clicked his tongue.
"That definitely sounds like they had another applicant with a similar concept and wanted to test you."
"So you think so too?"
Geunseong admitted his own interview hadn't been easy either.
Still,
he looked relieved,
as though he'd managed reasonably well.
"Seungho, aren't you leaving? Isn't it hot?"
"I've got time.
But yeah, it is pretty hot.
Want to grab something cold from the convenience store by the main gate?"
"Sounds good. I need a cold drink."
A large convenience store stood directly outside the school's entrance.
According to Seungho's tutor,
once they enrolled,
they'd practically live there during late-night studio sessions.
Ding.
The store was quieter than expected.
Both Seungho and Geunseong had interviewed relatively early.
More importantly,
most applicants were simply too exhausted to stop anywhere.
"After spending a day here, I really want to get accepted.
The facilities are amazing."
"Seriously.
Even the studio where we took the second practical exam belongs to just one class."
"It must be huge.
There aren't even twenty students in each class."
Ding.
As they chatted over cold drinks,
the entrance bell rang again.
Both instinctively turned toward the door.
Another applicant had entered instead of going straight home.
"Oh... that's..."
It was the girl they'd seen that morning in the cafeteria.
Lily Carpenter.
In his previous life,
she had entered Hanyeong as the top-ranked student in the Fine Arts Department.
"I heard she's from England."
"Why? Are you curious?"
"A little.
She had to do the interview in Korean, right?
I wonder how that went."
Seungho had asked teasingly,
but Geunseong's sincere concern caught him off guard.
Meanwhile,
Lily picked up a shopping basket and approached a nearby shelf.
Geunseong quietly whispered,
"Guess it didn't go very well."
Her eyes were red,
as though she'd been crying.
Several damp strands of brown hair clung to her face.
She was already smaller than most students her age,
and with her shoulders hunched so tightly,
she looked especially pitiful.
'Even I thought that interview was brutal.
For a foreign student...
it must've been torture.'
Especially with Professor Ahn's opening question.
Whether it was because of similar subject matter or a similar concept,
Seungho wasn't sure.
But he was convinced at least one other applicant had been asked the same difficult questions.
He couldn't help smiling bitterly.
Beep.
Beep.
"That'll be twenty-four thousand five hundred won."
Lily carried her purchases to a table some distance away.
Watching food pile up across the table,
Seungho and Geunseong exchanged glances.
'She's going to eat all that herself...?'
'I've never seen anyone spend over twenty thousand won eating alone at a convenience store.'
While waiting for the microwave and hot water,
Lily seemed to remember the interview.
She stood fidgeting,
doing everything she could to hold back her tears.
"Hnnng...
Hnnng..."
Sniffling,
she finally picked up her chopsticks.
Whether she was swallowing noodles or tears,
her appetite certainly hadn't disappeared.
She even placed a hot bar inside her cup noodles so it wouldn't cool down.
Watching this,
Geunseong quietly admired her.
'She must've lived in Korea for a long time.'
'Why do you say that?'
'She's got the right attitude.
No matter how miserable you are,
you eat first.'
Despite his intimidating appearance,
Geunseong had a kind heart and couldn't help worrying about others.
Only then did he finally relax.
But Seungho,
who already knew the future,
had never worried in the first place.
There was only one thing he couldn't stop wondering.
'Just how incredible was her painting... if she could perform that badly in the interview and still become the
top-ranked student?'
---
A few days before the second semester began,
Kim Seungho sat quietly in front of his computer,
staring at the admissions website.
The first goal he'd pursued without a moment's rest since returning to the past.
He had prepared desperately.
Yet he'd never truly worried about the outcome.
Especially after his tutor had reviewed his recreated work and interview answers and told him it was already safe to
celebrate.
He had believed that.
And yet...
2026 Korea Arts Gifted School Final Admissions Results
Department: Fine Arts
Examination Number: 0032
Result: Accepted (Top-Ranked Freshman)
Among nearly a thousand applicants,
he had never once expected to finish first.
'I'm... the top-ranked student.'
The moment he saw the result,
every memory from his still-short second life flashed through his mind.
His parents.
His tutor.
His science gifted school instructors.
His classmates who had whispered that he'd finally lost his mind.
And...
the person who should have been reading this announcement instead.
'The future has changed.'
If he hadn't seen Lily Carpenter holding back tears after the interview...
would he have been able to celebrate without hesitation?
He thought about it carefully.
The answer was no.
Because Kim Seungho had taken the entrance exam,
Lily Carpenter had been pushed out of first place.
Someone who should have barely been admitted had instead failed.
Elsewhere,
at the Science Gifted School,
someone else had unknowingly taken the seat that had once belonged to Kim Seungho.
That was how life worked.
People inevitably moved forward by taking opportunities that might otherwise have belonged to someone else.
But he'd already spent one lifetime learning how empty it felt to justify trampling others as simply part of becoming an
adult.
"Dad? Yeah... I just checked."
Determined never to forget the value of everything he'd gained from others in this second life,
Kim Seungho began sharing the good news with the people who mattered most.