“Where are you going Max?”

Victoria croaked, standing by Changmin who was busy tightening the buckle of his thick tattered boots. Changmin sighed silently and tugged the laces into his boots neatly and walked to the front door of his shop.

He didn’t turn back to look at Victoria but nevertheless answered his sister’s question with an incredibly heavy heart.

“Back to the witch, only she could help us” he mouthed. Not wanting to talk anymore, Changmin walked out of the door without turning back.

He never wanted to go back into the forest; he never wanted to see the witch ever again but now he had no other choice. He had to save his bride and to do that; he had to know where she was.

Changmin was aware that getting a favour from a menacing witch wasn’t going to be easy but he was going to have to try his best. He needed to save the life he created and if he had to trade his soul in order to save hers, he wasn’t going to hesitate.

Victoria saw the vanishing figure of her brother as the welcome bell on the door jingled for a second; echoing in the hollow shop before it eventually stopped.

She finally gave way for her tears and wearily took a sit on the wooden chair at the side of the counter.

The loose empty powerless black ring on her index finger was supposed to be the wish her brother toiled hard for. But all had just gone within a single swipe of an influential card.

“I’m sorry max~”

With that small note, Victoria closed her puffy tear brimmed eyes and fell asleep. Her right hand lifelessly slide to the side of the chair and that very second-

It happened…

The other side of the boon the witch failed to tell Changmin about.

A single streak of thick black liquid flowed down her long index finger, slightly scalding her in the process. Thick inconsistent textured liquid dripped to the wooden floor and created soft ‘thud’ sounds upon it’s collision with the wooden flooring. – But silent enough to not wake Victoria up. 

***

Sitting on the bed with her bright eyes wide awake, Yoona looked up at the half guy who was staring right back at her with equally large eyes.

He had just witnessed the moment she had pulled the collar of her red trench coat and looked down at herself, taking a peep of her own body.

“Your body looks different from mine but it’s still beautiful” she deduced after comparing her body with what her eyes were witnessing.

“Do you mind?!” Minho questioned feeling shy and embarrassed as he took the towel and covered or at least tried to cover his upper body. He had still not grown used to the idea of sharing his room with a beautiful girl.

“Je ne me dérange pas~” she easily shook her head, failing to understand what he really meant.

 Minho froze for second before he chuckled at her totally irrelevant answer.

“Of course you wouldn’t mind. Why would anyone mind seeing me half ?” he murmured to himself before, taking a long look at Yoona who was still perched on his white bed.

A smile formed on his plump lips but it fell back into a straight line within a tad moment. She was going to have to go. Back to whom she really belonged to-

She didn’t belong to him, she wasn’t his to start with. She was a priceless possession, how would she ever be in his possession for a mere thousand bucks.

Even though Minho had only spent less than 24 hours with this girl; he very well knew that it was going hurt when saying goodbye. For the past few days she had stood on his shelf, making him smile the entire time.

“Are we going somewhere Minho Choi?” she asked cutely adding his surname to his name.

“I am going for classes while you are staying here, inside this room. Quietly… and it’s Minho, only Minho not Minho Choi.”

The girl immediately stood up on his bed, towering Minho within a second.

“I’m not going to stay here by myself. I’m not, I’m not, and I’m not. I want to go to class too!” She wailed out loud and jumped on his bed showing him forms of tantrum.

“So please bring me along, s'il vous plaît. Oh please Minho~” 

Minho crossed his hands across his chest and raised his eyebrow with squinted eyes.

He had to find out. Was she acting cute because she knew that he had a ridiculously soft spot for girls; with large brown eyes, beautiful pale skin and long cascading hair or she was just being cute all by herself?

“Okay fine. I’ll bring you to campus but only if you promise to act-” he paused for a second to decide on the right word to use.

“…Human-like?”

Yoona nodded her head vigorously as she clapped her hands not creating any sound. Minho giggled at her behaviour and reached out his hand for her to take it.

“Now get down of the bed. You’ll get hurt if you fall of it and on addition my bed is really expensive”

Yoona eyes went wide as she grabbed Minho’s hand and got down the bed.  He looked at Yoona and realized that she was probably a little underdressed for late autumn. It was almost a 15°C outside in the streets of Zurich.

Minho reached out for a thick blue scarf and a shorter black scarf from his wardrobe. He then drawled the semi-long scarf to its full length and wrapped it around Yoona’s neck.

“I’m not sure if you can fall sick, but let’s not take a chance alright?”

Yoona nodded her head as she allowed Minho to wrap the scarf around her neck up to right below her reindeer nose.

She closed her eyes and took in the masculine scent of the scarf. It smelled of him and he smelled like winter, so cool like the crystal icy flakes yet so warm like the sound of crackling firewood inside the fireplace. The short threads on the cotton shawl tickled her sensitive skin bringing her nothing but more warmth.

A natural smile formed on Minho’s face as he finished up dressing his doll. She looked so pure like autumn and brought in so much colors into his boring boyish room that was always neat thanks to his household maids.

“Okay Yoona, now we need a plan. No one should see you, especially my sister.”

Yoona just stared at the handsome guy and gave him a nod he wanted.

“I’ll distract my sister while you run out of the door…the main door at the first floor”

Minho told her all the instructions carefully before reaching out for his backpack on his table and rushed out of his room to find Krystal.

He was going to have to find another way to get Yoona in and out of the house, it was too dangerous.  Minho started crawling down the third floor as quietly as he could. Thinking that nobody was watching him- he decided to restore his childhood fantasy and immediately became James bond in a brief minute.

“What are you doing?”

There, with a frown featured on her face; Krystal was staring at Minho as if he had grown a second head. Upon registering the fact that he was being harshly judged by his sister, Minho immediately stood up to his normal height somewhat rigidly.

“mmm… nothing?” it came out like a question as his voice broke a little, he brought down his hand-gun almost immediately and grinned awkwardly.

The both of them went in an awkward silence as the ‘ticks’ of the noisy clock-that somehow always sounded so much louder during awkward times.

He had to think of something fast; his curious doll was probably at the mouth of his room, witnessing all of his ridiculous actions-And for the matter of fact, laughing her dolly head off.

“You’re looking really pretty today. What happened?”- changing the subject as smooth as an ice smoothie, he gave Krystal his most charismatic smile.

He wasn’t supposed act in such a way to his younger sister; but what was the big deal about it when she didn’t even see him as a brother to start with.

Surprised by Minho’s sudden compliment, Krystal turned slightly pink in pride as she looked down at her dress and smirked a little.

“Well, I guess I do look a little-”

She stopped talking as Minho started to walk towards her with a really flirty smile.  She wasn’t used to Minho being like this and she could tell he was up to no good.

“What are you doing? You freak!” – She took a step back but it didn’t seem that Minho was going to stop.

“umm.. Your peachy!! Colored shirt has a really good contrast to your face?” – Not knowing what to say, the un-sensible boy just had to make something up.

“What?”

Krystal looked up at Minho who was standing right in front of her, blocking her entire view from anything else other than his handsome face and toned body.

“What are you talking about? And why are you shouting for?”- To top that, she wasn’t even wearing at peace colored shirt, she was wearing a dress which was Blue in color

Did her step-brother really didn’t know the difference of a shirt and a dress or was it just the time of the year where he turns into a crazy rooster.   

“Don’t you hear me!; I said I really like your peachy!! Shirt”

And to Minho’s biggest relieve, he saw his doll sneaking out of his room upon hearing their secret code-word that took him a whole fifteen minutes to think of. 

Noticing Minho’s sudden change, Krystal tried tip toeing and straining her neck a little to see behind him; across his tall shoulder. Lucky for Minho, he thought of another brilliant idea fast enough to safe his doll’s identity.

“Come give your brother a big warm hug, Soojungie” – not waiting for a response, he crushed her head onto his warm chest and held it there still; restricting all her struggles.

“Run! Palli~”

Minho whispered a shout at Yoona who took the cue and ran out of the house. Once the door closed back with a small inaudible ‘thud’; he let out a loud relieved sigh and almost immediately let go of Krystal, pushing her away a little.

With an extremely red face, she looked up Minho in fury; brushing away the hair that had stuck on her face due to someone.

“Something is going on, and I am going to find that out!  You just watch out you stupid giraffe!”

Smiling at Krystal’s cute attempt of threatening him, he ruffled her hair affectionately. Three years with his sister was enough to know that she wouldn’t do anything that got him intoto trouble.

***

Knocking on the rotten wooden hard enough to turn his hands red and swollen, Changmin started to shout for the witch who was apparently ignoring his vigorous knocks.

“Hyoyeon, Please open the door! I need help! Please Hyoyeon!” – Seemingly he looked like a child who was trying to get his parents to open the door for him.

Wiping away the tears that saw no stop with the back of his hand, he continued to bang the fragile door with his already blue-black hands.

“Hyoyeon! Open up you bloody hag!” – That was his last straw as he resorted into shouting at Hyoyeon, hoping that at least that would get her attention.

“OPEN U-”

The doors of the dark chamber flew open, stopping Changmin mid-way into making his tight fist in contact of the witch’s face.

 “I beg your pardon?”

Her face held no amusement as she looked at Changmin withered red face.  The very next second, even before Hyoyeon could register what was going on, she saw Changmin fall to his knees in a begging figure.

“I need help…Please help me”

With a serious expression held on her face she stayed still at the door step of her house listening to what Changmin had to tell her.

Boiling up on what Changmin just confessed, still kneeling on his knees. She raised her hand and slapped the poor boy on his right check as hard as she could, hard enough to make Changmin bleed on the lips. What was he thinking while making that wish?

“What were you thinking?! You impudent boy! I told you to be careful with it” – She just couldn’t believe; what her benefactor had done with the boon she had handed him.

“You created a life??! You created a replica of my ring??!!”

Changmin couldn’t continue his protest- for he knew that it was his mistake, it was his mistake for making a doll, it was his mistake for not telling Victoria about his doll and it was definitely his mistake for falling in love with a life-less object.

“Bad things are going to happen. Bad things!! Go find that doll and bring me back the ring on her finger. If anyone gets it before me…”

The old women shook her head in terror; shaking Changmin’s sullen shoulders roughly. This boy had done a grave mistake and that could even cause him his life and more importantly her powers. She wasn’t going to sacrifice her powers for a pathetic human creature and his now-life doll.

Grabbing his left collar with her right hand, the witch pulled the boy up to his original height and stared intimidatingly into his eyes.

“Listen carefully ~” – She then pulled Changmin closer to her shorter form and whispered softly and scratchily into his ears.

***

School ended well enough- for Minho managed to sneak his doll into the large lecture theatre. Siting at the very back row of the hall, the both of them spent their time in the theatre mocking the semi-bald person that was sitting a few rows before them. That person was actually drooling all over his iPad.  

At times Minho would take a few sneaky peeks at Yoona who was smiling so brightly. Today was probably the last day he could see such a divine smile, this small period of time with her will never be forgotten.

Fortunately, for the both of them lecture finished half an hour earlier and as planned Minho decided to bring Yoona back to the store.

Sitting in the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund Tram; the most effective way around town, Yoona couldn’t contain her gasps and awes as she looked around the town that was that was running fast in front of her glassy eyes.

The town looked so warm yet cold under the golden rays of the setting sun. All spectrums of Orange colors spread across the rosy fields of the town, making Yoona awed with just the mere sight.

“Minho, Are you okay?” – She finally decided to come back to Minho who was looking down since the minute they boarded the tram.

Mustering a weak smile for Yoona, he lightly drawled his fingers down her silky locks and huffed aloud before looking away, fearing that tears would fall from his big eyes.

“We’re going to the Bahnhofstrasse~”

Yoona didn’t protest and followed Minho quietly as they got down the tramp and started walking towards a block of shops. Whenever Minho left her behind a little, she would run towards him and tightly hold his warm hands- not wanting to let go of him.

She wasn’t used to crowded environments just yet and the only one she could trust was her owner-Minho. Minho too didn’t let go of Yoona’s hand as he led her to the doll shop where he first had seen Yoona.

“Why are we here?”

Minho didn’t answer Yoona as he tried to take a peek inside the store. Wiping off the fog on the glass, he squinted his eyes a little and looked into the small shop to see Victoria sadly cleaning the counter table.

Yoona tried to take a peek inside the shop together with Minho- but instead accidently pushing him aside to get a space beside him.

“Yah, let me see too~”

“Step aside Yoona”

The both of them started squabbling in front of the shop’s window, basically because it was fun.  And as if on cue, Victoria eyes made contact with Minho and Yoona.

The very second Victoria saw Minho, her eyes widen; the girl beside him was Yoona. Her brother was indeed telling her the truth, his doll did come alive. Her brother didn’t had to be sad and angry with her anymore since his doll was back right?

Minho’s eyes also widened as he started panicking, he wasn’t ready to let go of Yoona just yet.

To give her back or to keep her right by his side? – He looked at Yoona who was innocently blinking back at him, She wouldn’t want to leave him either. Her eyes spoke of how much trust and hope she had of him.

Minho then made a decision that he knew had its own consequences.

Victoria stumbled out of the counter area and was about to reach for the store’s door- from the inside when.

“Yoona-ya, listen carefully. If anyone other than me calls after you or follows you, I need you to run. Just run!”

“Run?” – She asked innocently as she looked up at Minho with tons of hopeful glints in her doe eyes.

“Yes Yoona, Run… Run back to me”

Yoona nodded to Minho, who then took her hands into his and started running as fast as he could. Far away from the store, fast enough to hide away from Victoria who was yet again faced with disappointment and despair.

The doll wasn’t going to come back to her brother; it seemed that the owner didn’t want to give Yoona back. Who would?

On the other hand, Minho felt guilty and he knew that he was going to pay for this one day- for retribution is always around the corner.

But for now, just for a little while he wanted his sunshine to be next to him in this cold town. And as for Yoona, she couldn’t be happier than to be in a beautiful town alive, together hand in hand with Minho.   

hey guys did you like this chapter? Do you guys see any kind of progression in the storyline? And please; check out the trailer-> tell me what you think of the trailer :)