The light was fading, creating new shadows and dark patches around Changmin. His eyes glimmered from tree hollows as the wind wailed between distorted trunks, carrying the sickly stink of wood rot. He moved faster, ignoring the briars that caught at his khaki colored loose pants and the damp leaves that grimed his skin.

He lifted his face, letting the light and shadow dance across his fair skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal; he inhaled its minty smell and continued on, delighting in the sound of his feet sliding through the leaves.

The trees stood utterly still, statues in a living museum where no leaf dared to fall. The dead leaves on the forest floor were crackling underfoot, leading him to the old cottage at the dead unending corner of the forest.

The sight of the cottage made the young man sigh in happiness; he walked up to the foot of the little premise. He took the thick circle bronze wall knob into his hand and banged in on the fragile old pine wood door; creating a loud hallow sound.

Changmin waited patiently at the mouth of the veranda as the old door slowly opened creating a loud and long screeching sound. Revealing the insides of the house that were darker then the forest itself; a short scrunched old lady walked out of the house; wearing a thick kneaded shawl over. She squinted her eyes from the dim light of the exterior as she looked at Changmin with a frown across her slightly swollen face.

“You’ve come once again young man” she was not happy with the fact he had come by to give her a visit.

“Please Hyoyeon; I’ve brought what you wanted.”

The lady’s eyes sparked a tint of amusement and weariness. She raised one eyebrow, her lips a tight line before she nodded.

“Come on in then”

Changmin followed the uncanny woman into the dark cottage; his weight pressed down on the uneven wooden flooring creating weird sounds that constantly echoed across the small place. The walls of the house were black as a big black pot at the centre took up most of the place. A roasty smell reached Changmin’s nose making him gag a little; that smell was chocking him.

“Sit down!”

The stern remark made Changmin obey her in a split second as he sat at the almost broken chair opposite her, a big table with chipped voodoo cards scattered over them.

“Did you bring me the necklace?”

Changmin took out the wooden sculptured piece of carving that was sewed onto a cheap strand of string. It took him 10 days to finish carving this from the timber of the vampire tree. He was about to pass the necklace to the old woman in front of him but paused.

“What do I get in return?”

A crooked smile framed the woman’s face, as she eyed the piece on the artist’s hand.

“What would you ever need when you actually have those pair of hands?” 

There was a short pause between the both of them as Changmin looked down at his blistered hands and cringed. Being a doll maker was a difficult job but he never regretted acquiring the talent from his father. Hyoyeon pulled off a black ring out of her short crooked index finger and placed it on the table in front; creating a small inaudible ‘thud’ sound.

“Take this and give me that piece”

“What is this?”

The old woman frowned again hinting on her visible saggy wrinkles.

“Wear this and make a wish, one wish; it will come true hundred and sixty-eight hours after the dawn breaks”

“Hundred and sixty-eight hours you mean? Seven days later my wish comes true”

The lady just nodded as she reached out her hand to get her part of the deal. Changmin looked at the black ring on his palm before he placed the wooden piece on the old woman’s shaking hands but took it back before he could release his grip on it.

“What impudence! Do you not wish to make it out of here the way you entered?”

Her booming screechy low pitched voice made it across the small room shaking Changmin a little.

“How can I believe this actually works?”

Hyoyeon leaned a little forward towards Changmin scaring him a little with her intimidating face.

“I’m a witch you moron! It’s a miracle I am letting you go without turning you into a frog and throw you into my potion! You either take the ring and hand me the piece or turn into a frog and give me the piece?!”

Changmin’s eyes went a little wide as he immediately placed the piece back onto the witch’s hand. He had always forgotten that she was a witch; she looked kind of pretty and kind looking for an old hag she really was.

“Good”

Hyoyeon smiled a little before running her shaking hands over the pattern of the piece.

“Now run along young one…run away before I change my mind for the better”

Changmin shot up from his sit and ran out of the cottage with the ring in his pocket. The witch eyed the guy as he ran away from her; she was pleased to know that humans still feared ‘fairy-tale’ characters.

“Maybe I should have turned him into a frog; I’m running out of supplies”

Hyoyeon mumbled as she sighed to herself. She looked at the wooden piece on her hand and undoubtedly a smile sprouted on her face. That boy had the hands of god; he could create anything with those hands of his.

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t wish for anything stupid”        

***

Changmin rushed back to his workshop and started working on his next project. He knew what he wanted the very next second the witch handed him the ring. He wanted a beautiful companion; he wanted a lover, he wanted a lady and he was confident that he could create the most beautiful lady in the world with the skills he acquired.

Rolling the porcelain into parts of the doll; Changmin started creating his bride. The constancy of the porcelain dough smothered in to becoming the doll’s perfect flawless white skin. He planted strands of perfect mid-night black hair onto the head of his doll that flowed till her mid torso. They started straight at the top and eventually turned wavy at the bottom section.

That hair was his mother’s; he had chopped of a handful of his dear mother’s beautiful silky hair before she was buried into the depths of soil. They were the evidence of his mother’s once existence in this world; he wanted his bride to have the same natural scent of his mother that he yet again wanted to wrap himself up in.

Changmin dipped his brush into the little pool of water and the paint tub before he drew the most beautiful eyes a doll could ever have. Wanting his doll to have the most beautiful eyes there ever was; he drew two big innocent eyes perfectly aligned beside each other. They were a certain color of dark brown but they never failed to shine as light brown under the dim lights of the moon and stars.

Changmin succeeded into creating realistic freckles of darker brown in the pupil; right around the black iris. Long lashes framed those big eyes and eyeliner was added to make them look more mysterious. Changmin looked into the eyes of his doll and smiled they were more alive than the eyes of some humans.

The doll had a high nose; sculpted perfectly at the centre of its beautiful face. Changmin travelled down to develop the body of his doll; a blush crept to his cheeks and skin when he had to mould the womanly features of his doll.

Changmin took his time in making his dolls body and finally created a body with all the slender and curves that were ideal for a perfect body. Two tiny feet at the bottom looked so cute in his eyes that he took special care into filing them well making the nails look healthy and shiny.

He then reached out for the small outfit that he had his elder sister sewed from scratch. The bright blood red trench coat like outfit was made out of soft cotton and the buttons were made from little tiny round pieces of wood that were wrapped into gold coloured materials. The outfit fitted perfectly over the beautiful doll; hugging it at all the right places.

Changmin huffed in relieve as he took out the ring in his pocket; he voluntarily dipped his tiny tip brush into the black ink paint and started to mould the black ring onto the doll’s long slender index finger; he followed all of the detailed posture of the ring including the golden roman letters that were engraved into it.

When he finished with the little ring on his doll’s finger he nodded his head in proudness; it looked like the carbon copy of the ring on his hand. Changmin ended his doll by trying out different colors of pink and red to achieve a beautiful color; when he eventually found a beautiful color, he swashed the paint onto the cute beautiful lips of his doll.

The coral pink paste with a hint of redness right at the centre of the lips; created a gradient effect. He also pressed down his small soft brush into the colored powder and brushed the pinkness onto the cheeks of his doll ever so softly.

Changmin looked at the arm length tall full figure doll and smiled lovingly. She was gorgeous; she was everything he wanted in a woman, she was his very own.

“You’ll be named Yoona, a pure hearted innocent girl with nothing but love in your heart”

He smiled shyly as he sewed the letter ‘Y’ at the corner of the red outfit, not very visible. He looked at his doll who seemed to be smiling back at him in the most beautiful way possible; her smile reminded him so much of the smile his mother used to give him.

“Do you like your name Yoona?”

Tears brimmed his eyes a little as he wore the ring onto his ring finger and clasped his hands together.

My only wish is for this doll to wake up and turn into human ~

Changmin wished with his eyes closed and when he opened in his eyes nothing changed; nothing happened, his doll was still on the table staring at him. He was a little apprehensive about the situation but nevertheless decided to give the witch’s magic seven days to work.

“See you in seven days Yoona-ya” he kissed the tiny little nose of the doll and carefully took it into his hands.

Changmin went to the first store (i don't know what this is supposed to be) and placed his creation in the glass cabinet and locked the cabinet with his key. He looked into the cabinet to see his doll standing elegantly on the shelf. She brought a certain glow to the whole store and made his other dolls look ugly.

“Wow, she’s very pretty. You really did spend your entire time on her didn’t you?”

Victoria, Changmin’s sister appeared from behind as she saw the doll in the glass cabinet. Changmin just smiled as response as he walked away to get some sleep.

“What’s her name?” Victoria called out to the retreating figure of her brother.

“Yoona, her name is Yoona; named after beauty and pureness.”

“Yoona? Well she’s beautiful alright, she looks a little like mum”

“I know, that’s why I made her”

Victoria smiled at her brother for a second before looking back at the doll, feeling proud of how perfectly the outfit she made fitted.

***

“How much longer must I stand here?” the annoyed brother stomped his right foot on the floor of the clothing store. Trying to irritate his younger sister who had fell into the ‘wo-man hole’ of shopping.

“It has been ages since I came shopping, will you please leave me alone!”

Soojung shot back a glare at her impatient brother who eventually found the right thing to do and walked away leaving his sister to shop in peace.  

Minho shook his head a little and walked towards a special looking store. It was a doll-making store, Minho felt drawn towards the quiet shop. It somehow attracted him with the authentic aura amidst other busy noisy stores around it. Minho opened the transparent door of the shop as he was welcomed by the door chime, and the sudden decrease of temperature.     

“Welcome~” Victoria sung as she heard the chiming sound on the door.

Minho just smiled at Victoria for a second before walking over to the glass cabinet to look at the dolls on them. They were all made so well, the maker of the dolls was almost like god; he could create such beautiful creations with the hands of his.

“Those are porcelain dolls, made by my brother; plastic, clay and glass figurines are at the other side”

“Nice”

Minho’s eyes scanned the cabinet but soon his attention got stolen by a specific doll at the highest shelf of the cabinet. The doll just drew in his soul in as he looked right into its brown eyes.

“Whoa” his voice hiked a little as he just couldn’t pull his attention from the doll. It gave him a feeling that of poison; it was scary of how much a doll could look like a human. It looked as if it could come alive anytime soon.

“She’s Yoona my brother made her four days ago”

Minho didn’t answer Victoria back as he was too busy getting awed by the creation of utter perfection. Delicate, Beautiful, Flawless, Breakable were the perfect words to describe the bright porcelain doll in front of him. A certain attitude of possessiveness washed across Minho’s body.

“Are you selling her?” he didn’t turn back to look at Victoria.

“It’s surprising to see another young man other than my brother; interested in dolls”

Victoria spoke out her amusement and walked towards Minho; next to the cabinet.

“What can I say; I’ve fallen in love” he looked at Victoria for a brief moment and smiled, spikes of amusement and happiness in his tone.

Victoria looked at the doll he was mentioning about and smiled; she really liked the doll. Nevertheless she decided to sell the doll to Minho; if she could make a good deal out it. Minho looked like an heir of a wealthy family; he could offer her a heavy amount if he really wanted the doll.

“How much are you willing to offer?”

“How much are you selling her?”

“Eight hundred dollars?”

Victoria kept her fingers crossed as she saw the man contemplating with his decision. If he accepted the deal; she and her brother could go on a short holiday. Her brother needed a small break from all the work and she wanted to have a little vacation.

“I’ll take her for a thousand” he finished his sentence in a fast pace; without turning his attention back to Victoria who was in awe. Over the years, they had never made a deal over six hundred dollars, not even once.  

“Eight-hundred dollars is an understatement for such a doll, she and the creator deserves more than that.”

Minho paused for a bit, turning his head to Victoria.

“But I would like to see the doll-maker; your brother”

“But you’re out of luck tonight, he’s not in; you might want to come back few days later. So should I still pack her?”

He showed Victoria a small cute pout with garnered a smile from her side as he nodded his head; signalling her to pack the doll. Victoria carefully fished out the cabinet key out of the front pouch of her blue art apron that was stained with chalk prints.

Pushing the key in with ease; she turned it to the right getting a ‘click’ sound. Victoria opened the door of the cabinet and gingerly took the fragile doll in her hands and walked over to the counter with Minho following right behind her.  

She placed the porcelain doll into the transparent plastic box and closed it tight; sealing it with some sticky tape.

“Please take good care of her…. She’s one of the prettiest dolls there ever was” she spoke with a smile on her face as she handed Minho the dark blue colored opaque paper bag with the doll inside of it.

“Don’t worry, I told you I fell in love with her”

The both of them chuckled at his statement as Minho pressed the pin numbers of his ATM card. The machine produced a receipt in seconds as he took back his card from the sales girl and bowed before he walked out of the store…

Spending a whole of a thousand, Getting awed by the doll-maker’s talent, Un-intentionally falling in love with a doll and buying a magical doll home; which who was soon-to-be human. 

Please leave a comment...what do you think? Should i really continue this project ? I saw a specific picture of Yoona taken in the airport and that one second i thought i saw a walking doll; so i was inspired to start this :P