You Smell Delicious

○ A romance that blossoms next door / A long-planned scheme

○ A socially anxious, shut-in vampire-succubus woman X a scheming, sweet-talking, devoted family-man type

Also known as: "The Shut-In Succubus Waits for Love to Break In"

Only two households lived on Supai'er's floor. One was hers, and the other seemed to belong to a human man around her age.

Aside from occasionally running into each other when they left for work or came home, nodding, and exchanging greetings, they had no other interaction. All she knew was that her neighbor's surname was Bian, he was over 180 centimeters tall, and he wore glasses all the time for mild nearsightedness. He looked like a refined, scholarly sort.

He seemed to be a researcher at the National Institute of Animal Research, exactly matching her stereotypical image of a scientist.

Hmm... A human like that must taste awful.

Supai'er was a vampire-succubus hybrid, but she was such a shut-in that she had never fed on human vitality or affection, let alone drunk human blood. Even so, she was sure the man next door wouldn't taste good.

Then one evening, she came home late from work to find that her water heater had suddenly broken. The repairman had already gone home.

In the end, her neighbor came over to fix it for her.

She'd assumed that a man with a science degree wouldn't know how to do that sort of thing.

But he fixed the water heater in no time. Unfortunately, he accidentally cut his hand on a piece of sheet metal, and blood welled up on the back of his hand.

Supai'er sniffed, catching an exquisite aroma, more tempting than any food she'd ever tasted in the human world.

She looked at the cut on his hand. Bian Siken had changed into nothing but a white shirt so he could fix the water heater, and it had gotten damp where water from the showerhead had splashed onto it.

To her, he looked like a shrimp dumpling wrapped in crystal-clear skin.

Supai'er swallowed without thinking. She was wrong. Bian Siken smelled delicious.

*

Bian Siken somehow became her food. To make the arrangement fair, Supai'er paid him for his meals.

But Supai'er discovered a rather troubling problem: after getting a taste, she felt like Bian Siken wasn't enough to satisfy her anymore. And yet she couldn't find anyone who tasted better!

Just as she was trying to find some new food, Bian Siken showed up wearing her favorite outfit. Lowering his eyes, he asked in a slightly wounded tone, "Could you eat only me?"

"Drinking only human blood isn't enough. That's why you're still hungry."

"Then what else do I need to eat?" Supai'er asked, confused.

"You also need to feed on human vitality."

"?"

"!"

Later, Supai'er lay in bed, patting her slightly sore, full stomach, thoroughly satisfied. Her neighbor really was a choice delicacy she'd picked out herself.

What she didn't know was that Bian Siken had deliberately cut his hand on the sheet metal that day.

[A girl who's painfully straightforward X a scheming but kind-hearted family-man type]

Content notes:

One true pairing, happy ending. The male lead is completely chaste!

It probably won't be very long. The initial plan is a short story of around a hundred thousand characters.

Very important disclaimer: This is not a traditional Western fantasy succubus setting! There are lots and lots of original worldbuilding details. The succubi in this story aren't lewd, evil demons. They're a species that can easily make people fall for them and feel full by feeding on love and affection. Pureblood succubi are very rare in this setting. Many are hybrids, such as humans mixed with succubi or succubi mixed with vampires. In short, it's a big melting pot of a world...

The heroine can feel full by consuming human vitality, blood, affection, or ordinary food.

Blurb dated March 4, 2024

Theme: To be decided