You Got Me Pregnant!
How long has it even been since I last set foot in here...
After my discharge, I spent about three days resting at my parents' place before coming back to my studio apartment — and the moment I stepped through the door, an air that was somehow both foreign and familiar came rushing up to greet me.
"Ahh... now it finally feels like I'm living again."
I dropped the convenience store bag onto the table without ceremony, pulled out the canned drinks I'd bought, and stuffed them into the fridge.
My parents' house was spacious and comfortable in its own way, but... having a space that's truly mine still beats everything.
Once I'd finished putting things away, I threw myself face-first onto the new mattress sitting in the middle of the room.
"Mmmh..."
The peculiar discomfort of a mattress my body hadn't learned yet and the deep ease of being in my own home washed over me at the same time. Only then did it truly sink in — I was back in the real world. Back in my own place.
...If I fall asleep like this, I just know I'll dream about boot camp.
No thank you. Lying there, I turned my head and gave the room a leisurely once-over.
I'd heard my sister had used the place while I was gone, and apparently she'd treated it far more gently than I'd expected. The furniture sat exactly where it always had, and not a single patch of wallpaper had picked up a smudge.
At the sight of a room no different from how I'd left it, a wry chuckle slipped out of me. She wouldn't stop singing about wanting a place of her own — guess she handled mine with more care than I gave her credit for.
Then, as my gaze drifted around the room, it snagged on a shelf tucked into the corner where the sunlight rarely reached.
"Oh..."
Lined up there in a neat row were whiskey bottles, gleaming with a rich, lustrous glow. My parents' favorite saying came back to me: If you're going to drink, skip the weird stuff — drink the good stuff. And good it was. These were the premium bottles I'd only ever dreamed of buying for myself.
Those... don't those run past a hundred bucks a bottle? When did they even buy things like this?
They'd probably assumed that, come my discharge, I'd round up some friends and drink myself under the table on cheap soju — so they'd stocked up in advance.
"...Should I have a glass now?"
There wasn't a single snack in the house to pair with it, but leaving those bottles sitting there untouched felt like a waste. They say good liquor needs no side dishes anyway... Just one glass. That's all.
I was just about to push myself up off the bed when a knock sounded at the front door.
Knock, knock.
"...Huh?"
I stopped dead and looked toward the entryway. Who on earth would show up at this hour? Nobody even knows I'm back yet.
Oh — one of my sister's friends, maybe? She'd been living here while I was away, so her friends might still remember this place as hers.
"Who is it?"
I raised my voice toward the door, but no answer came back from the other side.
Just as I decided I must have misheard and reached for the whiskey again—
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A barrage of pounding, far more irritable than before, rattled the whole door on its hinges.
"Seriously — who is it?"
It sounded less like knocking and more like somebody kicking my door in. Swallowing my irritation, I scooped my pants up off the floor and threw them on.
I marched to the front door and, without a moment's hesitation, punched in the code on the door lock and flung it open.
"Who the hell are y—"
The words died in my throat. The instant the door swung wide, the impossible sight waiting on the other side froze me to the spot.
...What is this? Did they start airing those hidden-camera prank shows again?
...
Snow-white hair spilling down to her waist. Scarlet eyes that burned vividly bright even in the dim corridor. And sprouting from her back, a pair of jet-black bat wings — with a heart-tipped tail swaying behind the hem of her skirt.
...A cosplay?
The word flashed through my mind in an instant. But those wings were flapping all on their own, wired as if straight into her nerves, and that tail kept swishing by itself — no costume on earth could pull that off.
While I stood there dumbly staring down at her, with no clue how I was supposed to react, she glared up at me with crimson eyes brimming over with tears, her lips trembling.
Even that was beautiful. I just kept gazing at her, dazed — until she flinched under my stare and let out a shrill shriek.
"You...! You got me pregnant!"
"...I'm sorry — what?"
What... what did she just say? A dopey, idiotic sound had simply fallen out of my mouth. Pregnant? Who? Because of me?
She shouted through her streaming tears, looking for all the world like she was the one being wronged.
"You don't remember me?!"
"No, how would I even know y—"
Mid-sentence, I caught myself and took another long, hard look at her — the face, the fluttering wings, that heart-shaped tail.
Those... I've seen those somewhere before, haven't I? Her features kept drifting up out of my memory, hazy and half-formed.
...Hold on. Wait. This woman — isn't she that succubus from my dream a month ago?
It had been a dream, and I wasn't naive enough to believe succubi actually existed — so naturally, I'd filed the whole thing away as a dirty dream. It was real?
"Could you... be the succubus from that dream...?"
My voice came out numb and airless, like a tire going flat.
Hearing that, she whipped her tail furiously back and forth and glared daggers at me.
"That's right! You manhandled me like some wild beast... and you just forgot?!"
"Holy shit..."
It's true... I did grab that tail of hers... and her hair, and then... ah...
Only now did everything from that night in the dream come flooding back, all at once.
"This is insane..."
Stunned, I darted a frantic glance up and down the hallway. The place had decent soundproofing, but if anyone happened to open their door and catch this scene, I had no doubt it would turn into a colossal pain in the ass.
"Hey — hey! Just get in here first!"
I grabbed her wrist and hurriedly pulled her into the apartment.
"...Let go! You're not planning to do it again, are you?!"
Snapping at me, she shook off my hand — and the moment she stepped into the entryway, she slipped off her own shoes and arranged them neatly to one side, the picture of decorum.
What the... since when are succubi that well-mannered?
Shooting me a sideways glare, she even straightened out the slippers I'd kicked off in a heap, then padded into the living room and flopped down onto the sofa.
Swallowing a helpless laugh, I hurried to shut the front door and lock it behind her. So she really is that succubus from back then.
I headed to the kitchen and pulled out one of the canned coffees I'd stashed in the fridge earlier. Even a succubus can handle a cup of coffee, right? She's not a cat — a little caffeine isn't going to kill her.
Back in the living room, I held the can out to her where she sat meek and docile on the sofa.
"Here. Drink this first and calm down."
"...Okay."
She kept sneaking furtive glances at me, then snatched the can out of my hand and gulped the whole thing down in one go.
I watched her throat bob, faintly mesmerized, and the moment she set the empty can down with a clack, I cut to the chase. This wasn't the kind of problem you dragged out, anyway — the sooner we untangled it, the sooner something resembling an answer would show up.
"Haah... Okay, fine. Let's say you really are the succubus from my dream. But what on earth is this about a pregnancy?"
At my question, she crushed the empty can in her fist and fiddled with her lips, gloomy.
"We slept together that day, remember?!"
"...Don't tell me one time was enough to get you pregnant."
I mean... even for humans, sleeping with someone on your ovulation day hardly guarantees a baby on the first try... Of course, we did go at it quite a lot that day, but still...
The moment I said it like I couldn't believe her, tears came bursting from her crimson eyes again.
"That's right! I've had to listen to everyone call me an idiot for getting pregnant on the very first day of my coming-of-age ceremony — and it's all your fault...!"
...
So... is this actually my fault? From where I was standing, absolutely none of this passed the common-sense test.
"Hold on, though. A succubus gets pregnant by a human? We're not even the same species — is that even possible?"
Rather than answer my perfectly reasonable question, she rounded on me like I'd said something stupid.
"Of course it is! Then who else do you think we'd have children with?!"
"...Fair point."
"We track down wherever men's essence runs strongest — we even come looking all the way to army bases...!"
Watching her wings flap in wounded indignation, I decided there was no point pressing the issue further.
For the record, until today I didn't even know succubi were real.
I sank down onto the floor in front of the sofa and looked straight up at her.
"So... the reason you came to find me — is this you telling me to take responsibility for the baby?"
At my words, her tail gave a jolt and went still. She ducked her head, face flushed red, and gave the smallest of nods.
"...That's right."
I let out a long, deep breath, then asked the question I least wanted to ask — and absolutely had to.
"This is... really awkward to bring up, but it has to be said."
"...What is it?"
"That. The baby's definitely mine, right?"
The second it left my mouth I felt like garbage — but honestly, if she's a succubus, this was exactly the kind of thing you verify. Male essence is literally their stock-in-trade, after all...
The words were barely out before she fixed me with a look brimming over with hurt and nodded hard.
"It is! This tattoo appeared right after I was with you!"
Huffing, she yanked her clothes sharply upward.
"Wh— hey...!"
For a second it looked like she was about to strip right there, and I moved to avert my eyes — but the design etched into her lower abdomen had already seized my gaze and refused to let go.
A vivid crimson tattoo, just below her navel — right where a womb would sit. It was an uncanny pattern: a vine twisted into the shape of a uterus, locked fast behind a sturdy padlock.
"...What is this?"
"...It's the Tattoo of the Covenant. It appears the instant a succubus conceives, to protect and preserve the child."
Her fingertip tapped the spot right beside the padlock. Etched there in tiny letters were three syllables:
Kim Hyunsung
That's... my name...?
"...I'm losing my mind."
"The morning after we did it, I woke up and this — along with your name — was just there on my stomach..." She tugged her clothes demurely back down and mumbled in a sulky voice. "While this is showing... a succubus can never take in another man's essence. Not until her child is safely born."
"Don't tell me... you've been starving this whole time? Ever since that night with me?"
At my question, her heart-tipped tail dropped to the floor with a pitiful little thump, and she nodded.
"...Yeah."