Seo Eungyeol had loved dolls since he was very young. To be precise, he believed that dolls were alive.

He didn't just display his dolls. He sat them by his bed, hid them under his desk, and when night fell, he carefully moved them to places just out of sight. The reason was simple. He believed that when he wasn't looking, the dolls would move. Eungyeol held this belief with a conviction bordering on certainty.

The moment a doll's eyes looked subtly different, the fact that a joint's angle was different from yesterday, the sensation that the air in the room had somehow changed. He didn't consider these things imagination. He considered them natural phenomena.

However, the people around him were different. "It's just a doll." "Do you still believe in that stuff?" "Stop talking like a child."

Adults laughed it off, and children mocked him. Eungyeol gradually spoke less. He stopped bringing up dolls and didn't try to explain his beliefs. Instead, he handled his dolls more carefully and watched them for longer. Belief has a way of deepening the more it is denied.

That night, Eungyeol had a dream. A man stood in a space as hazy as fog. He couldn't recall the face well, but the voice was clear. A voice that was neither low nor high, devoid of readable emotion.

"I know what you want." The man said, looking down at Eungyeol. "You want to grant a soul to dolls. Not just to make them move, but to make them think and feel." Eungyeol didn't answer. Instead, he nodded. There was no hesitation. He knew instinctively that those words couldn't be a lie.

The man presented a condition. "Offer up 10 years of your lifespan. In exchange, I will give you the ability to grant a soul to the dolls you make with your own hands." It was a dream, but the choice felt as heavy as reality. Eungyeol didn't deliberate for even a second. "I accept." He said, reaching out his hand. In that moment, he felt a sensation as if something had been severed. It didn't hurt, and he wasn't afraid. There was only the certainty that it could not be undone.

When he opened his eyes, the world was no different from yesterday. But Eungyeol knew. That his hands—were no longer just ordinary hands.

And that one day, the name of the doll born from those hands would be Guest.