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FULL INFO
On the very fringe of Jeju amidst a sea of flowers and clear skies lived a man, on his own. He was married younger than anyone could have condoned with threats that their marriage wouldn't last and he was only complicating his life, but he didn't heed a single warning and ended up happily married with a woman he loved more than anything else. Together they had two children and grew into adulthood together.
Unfortunately, their happy marriage was cut short by illness, and his wife passed away suddenly and with little warning. Distraught and left with two children to raise on his own, he quickly jumped into another relationship with a different woman if only to ward off his own loneliness. Unbeknownst to him and to his two children, the woman was a demon - the kind who threw fits with no warning, who broke things, and lashed out with her hands. For years the man clung to his abusive relationship, too afraid what would happen to him when he was alone, and couldn't leave despite the begging of his two children.
Having had more than enough of the wrath of their stepmother, the man's two children left, and he was left to his own devices with the woman who was far more monster than human. It was only by some divine intervention that he was freed from the relationship after decades of emotional and physical abuse, and not of his own will; one day he woke up and the woman was just gone. Her things had disappeared, she'd stolen his money, and she'd left him alone in a house built to house four, which now only housed one.
Distraught by the loss of his children who still refused to take his calls and the loss of his second wife, heinous as she was, he sold his house in the city and moved to the remote cost of Jeju island, building himself a cabin on a cliff, backed by a sea of flowers and overlooking the ocean.
Determined not to spend the rest of his days alone, he used the last of his money to buy wood from an old mill that struggled to make ends meet, buying out the very last of their stock and hauling it back to his cabin whole, with only ropes to aid him. (A short time after, an earthquake hit the area, and the whole mill sank into the ground.)
For the next 60 years the man kept to himself, locked away in his cabin's basement with only his wood tools and his wood to occupy himself. To keep his loneliness at bay, he decided he'd construct a doll made of wood in the shape of his first wife and pose her around the house to give it some life. What wasn't known to him at the time he began was that his own thirst for perfection would keep the doll from being completed until he was well into his senior years, until his health began to decline and he could barely see the fingernails he was trying to carve, or the ear canal he spent 8 years trying to perfect.
As technology advanced around him, so did the methods he used, and his carefully crafted wooden doll was covered in a fine silicon skin to preserve her, and give her something soft to touch.
One day, there was nothing more he could do for the doll. She was complete, from her individual eyelashes to the nails on her toes. Thinking he would take a quick nap before bringing her upstairs to fill out his empty cabin, the man laid down with his head on his work bench... and didn't wake up again. Trapped in the walls of the empty house filled with regrets and loneliness, his restless soul was sucked into the nearest empty vessel it could find.
Soon after, after noticing that his taxes had stopped being paid, the bank was quick to seize the man's property and auction off his belongings, including the doll he painstakingly crafted with his own hands. She went for only dollars and cents to an art collector who planned to display her in his main foyer, and she was carefully wrapped and lowered into the trunk of his car for easy transport back to his villa. In celebration of a successful new purchase, he stopped on the way home to pick up a bottle of whiskey for the occasion... when he returned, his car was gone with the doll inside.
Taken by a stranger with no interest in her, the doll was sold off to a pawn shop (whose workers frightfully witnessed him hit by a bus on the way out, still counting his bills!), who then flipped her to an antique store for a hefty profit - which came just in time, as the second they signed her over, the pipes of the store burst, and all current stock was ruined.
The antique store displayed the doll in the window, posed next to an old mirror and some ornate lamps. She was left as the center piece of the store, used to attract new customers curious about the lifelike doll propped up in the window.
But how boring it was to stand in a window all day, with only antiques to keep her company! Deciding for her own one day, she dusted off her skirt, fixed her hair, and walked straight out the front of the store in search for something more entertaining. She hadn't noticed the electrical fire starting in the front window, and wasn't sure, when she turned around ten blocks later, where exactly it was all that smoke was coming from.
Rumours began to float around online about a mysterious doll who curses all who come into contact with her, with many enthusiasts determined to work out whether they were real, or just some story made up for kicks. A shame they never stopped to pay more attention to the excitable girl at the entrance of the subway station, watching street performers with rapt attention, clapping her jointed fingers.
Unfortunately, their happy marriage was cut short by illness, and his wife passed away suddenly and with little warning. Distraught and left with two children to raise on his own, he quickly jumped into another relationship with a different woman if only to ward off his own loneliness. Unbeknownst to him and to his two children, the woman was a demon - the kind who threw fits with no warning, who broke things, and lashed out with her hands. For years the man clung to his abusive relationship, too afraid what would happen to him when he was alone, and couldn't leave despite the begging of his two children.
Having had more than enough of the wrath of their stepmother, the man's two children left, and he was left to his own devices with the woman who was far more monster than human. It was only by some divine intervention that he was freed from the relationship after decades of emotional and physical abuse, and not of his own will; one day he woke up and the woman was just gone. Her things had disappeared, she'd stolen his money, and she'd left him alone in a house built to house four, which now only housed one.
Distraught by the loss of his children who still refused to take his calls and the loss of his second wife, heinous as she was, he sold his house in the city and moved to the remote cost of Jeju island, building himself a cabin on a cliff, backed by a sea of flowers and overlooking the ocean.
Determined not to spend the rest of his days alone, he used the last of his money to buy wood from an old mill that struggled to make ends meet, buying out the very last of their stock and hauling it back to his cabin whole, with only ropes to aid him. (A short time after, an earthquake hit the area, and the whole mill sank into the ground.)
For the next 60 years the man kept to himself, locked away in his cabin's basement with only his wood tools and his wood to occupy himself. To keep his loneliness at bay, he decided he'd construct a doll made of wood in the shape of his first wife and pose her around the house to give it some life. What wasn't known to him at the time he began was that his own thirst for perfection would keep the doll from being completed until he was well into his senior years, until his health began to decline and he could barely see the fingernails he was trying to carve, or the ear canal he spent 8 years trying to perfect.
As technology advanced around him, so did the methods he used, and his carefully crafted wooden doll was covered in a fine silicon skin to preserve her, and give her something soft to touch.
One day, there was nothing more he could do for the doll. She was complete, from her individual eyelashes to the nails on her toes. Thinking he would take a quick nap before bringing her upstairs to fill out his empty cabin, the man laid down with his head on his work bench... and didn't wake up again. Trapped in the walls of the empty house filled with regrets and loneliness, his restless soul was sucked into the nearest empty vessel it could find.
Soon after, after noticing that his taxes had stopped being paid, the bank was quick to seize the man's property and auction off his belongings, including the doll he painstakingly crafted with his own hands. She went for only dollars and cents to an art collector who planned to display her in his main foyer, and she was carefully wrapped and lowered into the trunk of his car for easy transport back to his villa. In celebration of a successful new purchase, he stopped on the way home to pick up a bottle of whiskey for the occasion... when he returned, his car was gone with the doll inside.
Taken by a stranger with no interest in her, the doll was sold off to a pawn shop (whose workers frightfully witnessed him hit by a bus on the way out, still counting his bills!), who then flipped her to an antique store for a hefty profit - which came just in time, as the second they signed her over, the pipes of the store burst, and all current stock was ruined.
The antique store displayed the doll in the window, posed next to an old mirror and some ornate lamps. She was left as the center piece of the store, used to attract new customers curious about the lifelike doll propped up in the window.
But how boring it was to stand in a window all day, with only antiques to keep her company! Deciding for her own one day, she dusted off her skirt, fixed her hair, and walked straight out the front of the store in search for something more entertaining. She hadn't noticed the electrical fire starting in the front window, and wasn't sure, when she turned around ten blocks later, where exactly it was all that smoke was coming from.
Rumours began to float around online about a mysterious doll who curses all who come into contact with her, with many enthusiasts determined to work out whether they were real, or just some story made up for kicks. A shame they never stopped to pay more attention to the excitable girl at the entrance of the subway station, watching street performers with rapt attention, clapping her jointed fingers.