Could’ve paid him even if it was only a little bit. Basically just told him his hours of effort wasn’t really worth any price lol like I get it, it wasn’t your expectation but god at least pay him. Even if it was tiny. Not to mention, he’s your FIRST customer. He ain’t gonna be the genius you know firsthand when he’s still new to the business and of course he needs to please customers first to even start getting more customers.
I don’t care about her constructive criticism because not only was it not actually helpful, she was content on leaving him (her teacher in the past btw) behind readily because she didn’t like it, and she only repeated her criticism both times but in different words. And now she’s left him hanging to wonder what exactly it is he did wrong other than “it’s fake. It’s not authentic”. Like she could’ve given him some pointers. Could’ve even said it in a less condescending way since the way she spoke was honestly really rude and made her look arrogant. Get off with that “I can tell” bs. She should have realised that something must’ve happened to get his style where it was in her past life. I wouldn’t be surprised if he quit the job or something but knowing stories like this where we are supposed to root for the FL, it might speed run his development to what she considers “genius”.
Edit:
Why are some commenters acting like the sensitive people are dumb and what Elena did requires some super high IQ?? Tf??? We know it’s part of the “plan” because she’s the FL we are supposed to root for. By that logic everything she does is part of her plan since this is a fictional story. We are not stupid, we know how this works. We just don’t like how she treated him so you all can get off your high horse calling people that they’re not smart enough. If this was real life, she’d already lost him as an asset of her plan because A. he’d never want to talk to or work for someone like her again if he does become successful, or B. He might have quit art. But because they’re trying to portray her as a “smart, cunning” villainess, well, everything is going to go her way with Raphael actually apparently kickstarting what she calls genius.