***
Chanwoo felt uneasy.
He stared at Eunho, who was sleeping with his head tilted back, wearing an incredulous expression. Eunho had suddenly called him out saying he was craving tteokbokki from in front of their school, and now he was nodding off while sitting at the table.
Like a sick chicken—no, a sick rabbit—Eunho’s head drooped toward the floor.
“Well, would you look at that?”
As if he were spinning a sangmo* in his dreams, his head rolled right, then left, then down again. Resting his chin on his hand, Chanwoo sighed.
“Hey, Jung Eunho.”
He tapped the table twice, and a startled Eunho jerked his head up.
“Wh-what?”
“What? You’re the one who called me out here just to fall asleep, and you’re asking what?”
“Huh… I dozed off again?”
“Yeah. You could be the leader of a folk percussion troupe at this rate.”
Maybe it was because he’d eaten what he’d been craving. Sleep flooded over him. Embarrassed, Eunho raised a hand slightly in apology.
“Ah… sorry.”
He lifted the mug in front of him. The orange juice seemed to wake him up a little. Chanwoo’s gaze stuck stubbornly to the mug.
“Juice? Not coffee?”
“Yeah, I wanted juice.”
“You never used to drink orange juice though?”
“I just started recently. There’s some in the fridge, so grab one if you want…”
His words trailed off. Seeing Eunho begin to nod off again, Chanwoo watched him with a troubled expression.
He remembered what Eunho had told him earlier, before going to buy the tteokbokki—the nausea just from smelling beer, the insane drowsiness lately, and the constant cravings.
This is… Chanwoo swallowed hard.
“Eunho.”
“Yeah?”
“Well… you know.”
Hesitating for a moment, Chanwoo finally spoke.
“You’re kinda like my sister when she was pregnant.”
“P-pregnant?”
Sleep vanished instantly. Strength returned to the body that had been melting into the chair. Eyes wide, Eunho asked again,
“P-pregnant?”
“Yeah… my sister came home once because she suddenly wanted Mom’s doenjang stew.”
Even as he spoke, doubt flickered across Chanwoo’s face, as if wondering whether he was right.
“At the time, that pig—no, my sister—and you were exactly the same.”
“….”
“The dozing off, the super specific food cravings. You know, that feeling!”
Seeing Eunho freeze, Chanwoo rushed to add,
“No, seriously, I know it sounds insane. But you’re seriously identical.”
“Chanwoo, men can’t get pregnant.”
“Humans used to just be humans too.”
“….”
“But then one day we turned into Beastmen. You’re a rabbit, I’m a water deer.”
Eunho stared at the fingers pointing back and forth between them. It wasn’t wrong. When he showed signs of wavering, Chanwoo’s voice grew more confident.
“If humans can become Beastmen, why couldn’t a man get pregnant once?”
“E-even so… no way…”
Pregnant. He had never even considered it. Sometimes Yi-beom would mutter during bed that he might get him pregnant at this rate, but that was clearly just to make Eunho embarrassed.
Without realizing it, Eunho placed a hand over his lower belly. Maybe because he’d just eaten tteokbokki topped with dried carrots, his stomach seemed slightly rounded. Seeing the soft curve, Eunho swallowed his fear.
“You’re saying this… might not just be tteokbokki…?”
There could be a baby inside? No matter how hard he tried to picture it, he couldn’t imagine it at all.
“My sister kept eating doenjang stew too, so I thought she was gonna give birth to a pot of stew or something, but nope.”
“…Huh.”
“A tofu-like nephew popped out instead.”
Chanwoo added the joke, but Eunho had already stopped listening. W-what do I do? His mind went completely blank.
Should I call Ahjussi first? Or should I touch my stomach more?
The hospital… ah, no. Would a veterinary clinic be right in a situation like this?
Was what was inside him an animal, or a person? Questions raced through his mind. Staring blankly at his juice, Eunho suddenly blurted,
“W-we’re not even at the stage where we get pregnant yet.”
They were at the stage of eating together, sleeping together, and packing lunchboxes. His relationship with Yi-beom had progressed from kissing to sleeping in the same bed—but that meant literally sharing a bed, not doing anything lewd or explicit.
Repeating Eunho’s words in his head, Chanwoo’s eyes widened.
No way. Even if someone carried off a twenty-year-old, still… His eyelids trembled.
“Hey, what the hell?”
Chanwoo, now deeply misunderstanding, gaped.
“You’re living together and you still haven’t slept together…?”
Unfortunately, Eunho didn’t have the mental capacity left to answer.
“Wow, you shameless rabbit.”
“….”
“Then whose kid is this?”
Unaware that the misunderstanding was deepening, Eunho’s thoughts raced.
Veterinary clinic, veterinary clinic. As he repeated it to himself, a business card he’d received a few days ago flashed in his mind.
“Ah…!”
The animal hospital! Pushing himself up from the table, he grabbed Chanwoo’s hand.
“You know where that animal hospital is, right?”
“Huh?”
“Clear Animal Hospital!”
Eunho shouted urgently. Without even waiting for an answer, he ran into the room, changed clothes, and came back out.
“Let’s go, hurry.”
Grabbing Chanwoo’s shirt, Eunho leaned toward the front door. His heart raced anxiously, no matter how much he told himself it couldn’t be true.
Seeing Chanwoo still not moving, Eunho raised his voice.
“I said let’s go already!”
“Hey, Jung Eunho.”
Chanwoo’s gaze dropped downward. Letting out a groan, he muttered,
“You should put on pants first, idiot…”
***
Clear Animal Hospital was quite far from their house. Only after driving for twenty to thirty minutes did the two finally arrive.
Chanwoo had contacted Sobin in advance after learning that he only worked weekends.
Sobin, who had come out to the entrance, greeted Eunho warmly. His atmosphere was very different from when they’d met at the café. Wearing a white coat, he now had glasses on.
“H-hello… um.”
“I heard from Chanwoo by text.”
Sobin’s gaze dropped downward. Feeling those eyes on his stomach, Eunho instinctively covered his lower belly with both hands.
“Come inside first.”
After Eunho bowed his head slightly, Sobin guided him forward with a gentle push to his back. Normally Eunho would have brushed off the touch, but he didn’t have the mental space for that now. The word pregnancy filled his head completely.
After that, everything moved quickly. He gave his name and address, took a urine test, and had blood drawn. Since Beastmen were still a subject of debate in the medical field, Sobin suggested running every test they could.
What if I really am pregnant…
Sitting and waiting for the results, Eunho stroked his lower belly.
I’m scared…
Tears welled up. He felt like he might burst into sobs if Yi-beom were here to hold him. I’m going to be a dad—no, a mom? And it’s a child born from my own body… Eunho bit his lip. Everything felt dark.
***
Time passed in a blur. When he came back to himself, Eunho was sitting beside Chanwoo in the examination room. Sobin frowned as he alternated his gaze between the papers on the table and the monitor.
Gulp. Eunho’s Adam’s apple bobbed loudly, the sound of swallowing echoing in the room.
“Try not to be shocked. Take a deep breath.”
Looking troubled, Sobin removed his glasses. After hesitating for a moment, he delivered the verdict.
“You’re two weeks pregnant.”
“W-what did you say?”
It felt like a bell was ringing inside his head—the kind people talked about when their life was over. Maybe this was that bell. Lips trembling, Eunho asked again,
“That’s… that’s a lie, right?”
“It’s not a lie.”
“You’re sure…? Is there any chance it’s wrong?”
“We ran both blood and urine tests, so the chances of error are extremely low.”
“This makes no sense…” Eunho murmured quietly, biting his lip. No matter how much the world had changed, no matter how humans had turned into Beastmen, this still felt impossible. It would’ve been more believable if Sobin and Chanwoo were secretly filming a prank.
After asking several more times, Eunho lowered his head deeply. What came after realizing it was real was confusion. Watching him, Sobin let out a sigh.
“…There hasn’t been a confirmed case of pregnancy in a male Beastman yet, but… given the current situation, it’s not entirely surprising. The problem is…”
At the low voice, Eunho lifted his head. Their eyes met.
“The problem is that your life could be in danger.”
“……”
“Especially if what’s inside you… is a tiger.”
Eunho sucked in a breath. Even while waiting for the results, he had never imagined a tiger cub.
Ahjussi is already scary enough, and now the baby’s a tiger too…!
Just imagining tigers filling the living room made it hard to breathe. He still hadn’t even seen Ahjussi fully transformed into a tiger because he was too scared. A soft sob slipped past his lips.
“We don’t know how or by what process this happened… but with your current body, giving birth is impossible.”
“Hngh… e-even with surgery?”
“I can’t promise anything. There’s no precedent, so the success rate would be low.”
Then what am I supposed to do…?
His thoughts tangled into knots. The same overwhelming helplessness he’d felt when he first became a rabbit crashed over him.
Sobin looked at Eunho, who sat there trembling pitifully in silence, with sympathetic eyes. Reaching across the table, he gently took Eunho’s hand. Startled by the sudden warmth, Eunho looked up.
“I’ll help you.”
TL Note: sangmo – traditional Korean hat worn Korean folk music and performance. It is a small, brimmed hat with a long ribbon attached to the top. Performers spin the ribbon dramatically by shaking and rotating their heads in circular motions.
