Chapter Text
Extra 1: The Fluffiest Vanguard of the Century
The physical fallout of a training session with Sim Jaeyun was a special brand of agony.
Niki dragged his limbs out of the steamy third-floor bathroom, his muscles still vibrating with a hot, liquid soreness that made even breathing feel like a core workout. Jake had been a completely merciless coach that afternoon. Four hundred consecutive push-ups on the damp grass, followed by an hour of explosive weightlifting in the backyard gym, had left Niki thoroughly convinced that the tech nerd’s soft, golden-retriever energy was a total fabrication.
But a long, scorching shower had finally chased the phantom ache from his joints. Feeling human again, Niki happily pulled on a fresh, plain white t-shirt and loose grey sweatpants before heading down the stairs, his bare feet sinking into the thick carpet of the first floor corridor.
When he rounded the corner into the main living room, he stopped dead in his tracks.
A sea of cardboard had entirely overrun the vast space. The carpeted floor was completely hidden beneath a chaotic mountain of open shipping boxes, master cases, crates, and shredded bubble wrap.
Sitting cross-legged in the center of the mess was Kim Sunoo, his blond hair practically vibrating with pure, unadulterated dopamine as he tore through silver blind-box foil wrappers with supernatural speed. To his left, Yang Jungwon had entirely abandoned his silver Conclave work tablet, leaning over the coffee table with a look of intense, childlike focus as he helped line up a miniature army of furry cartoon monsters.
The coven was aggressively unboxing the massive haul of Pop Mart mystery boxes of Labubus Niki and Sunoo had smuggled back from Gangnam a few days ago.
Against all odds, even Park Jongseong—the uptight businessman who had been threatening financial liquidation only a few hours ago—was currently sitting on the edge of the couch. He still wore his dark apron, but his sharp, chiseled jaw was tight with concentration as he carefully squeezed a tiny outfit over a Labubu's head.
"No, Jay, you’re putting the overalls on backwards!" Sunoo gasped, swatting at the chef’s hand with an empty cardboard box. "The straps go over the shoulders, not across the chest. You are completely ruining its proportions!"
"I am a master of structural design, Sunoo, I know how pants work," Jay grumbled, though he was carefully smoothing down a tiny denim outfit backwards onto the fluffy plush toy with his sharp, pale fingers.
Niki stepped over a crate, his eyes widening as he took in the scale of the operation. There were figures from the Exciting Macaron collection scattered across the sofa cushions, a neat row of the Have a Seat series boxes stacked on the edge of the glass coffee table, and massive boxes of the Big into Energy series piled on the carpet of the room.
But it was the display directly in front of Sunoo that caught Niki's attention.
Lined up on the polished glass like a tiny, menacing army were six identical figures, completely different from the colorful, bright variants. They were the highly coveted secret Labubus from the Big into Energy series—featuring a thick, gradient colour scheme of midnight-black and grey fur, brilliant rainbow-glowing eyes, and a sharp row of multi-colored teeth bared in a chaotic grin.
"Niki! You're just in time to witness an event which shall go down in history!," Sunoo squealed, his eyes dancing with a sassy, ecstatic brilliance as he clapped his hands together. "Look at this! Look upon my magnificent luck! Six of them! Do you know what the statistical probability of pulling six secret Labubus from four cases is? It’s practically a miracle. The universe is clearly in alignment with my vision."
Niki came over to check it out, sliding onto the edge of the cream sectional and leaning forward to snatch one of the black, rainbow-eyed monsters from the table. He spun the vinyl figure around in his hands, inspecting the tiny, mischievous fangs. "They look like they're about to start a riot," Niki snickered, a wide grin breaking across his face.
"Exactly," Sunoo laughed, a thoroughly evil glint spiking in his dark eyes. "Which is exactly why they are going directly up to Heeseung’s space. I am plotting a mandatory aesthetic intervention. These match his dark energy so perfectly it’s almost offensive."
Jungwon looked up from a pile of foil packaging, his hair still a bit messy as a wide, dimpled smile broke across his cat-like features. "Oh, we should absolutely add more. We should gather every single secret variant we unbox tonight from every series and place them all over his private shelves. If you put them next to his ancient, three-thousand-year-old grimoires, he will likely think the texts have spawned a demonic infestation."
"Exactly! That is the entire purpose of this plan!" Sunoo laughed evilly, tossing his fluffy blond hair back. "It’ll give his stagnant, brooding eternity a much-needed pop of color!"
The coven burst into a collective chorus of low, delighted laughter, the found-family chaos of the room reaching a fever pitch.
Jay let out a sharp, cynical huff, carefully setting a fully dressed plush doll down on the table. "Well just count me entirely out of the execution and planning," the chef muttered dryly, crossing his arms over his apron. "I manage our investments and I cook your meals. I am not volunteering to let Heeseung use his shadow tendrils to dunk me into the freezing mountain lake again. Not after what happened back in 1994. My pride hasn't recovered."
"Oh, stop being a coward, Jay, it's a strategic operation," Jungwon teased, tossing an empty cardboard box at him. The leader smoothly stood up from the floor, stretching his arms as his eyes locked onto Sunoo. "Here’s the plan. I’ll officially volunteer to distract Heeseung. I’ll make the pureblood go into my office on the second floor, pretend there’s an urgent Conclave border breach update, and keep his focus locked onto my tablet. While he is busy with me, Sunoo can slip into his space and organize the monster army across his shelves. Also, add some colourful ones too, just to make sure they stand out."
"Perfect," Sunoo giggled, scooping a handful of Labubus into his arms like a prize. "Operation Midnight Monster is a go."
Three hours later, the clock on the living room wall rolled past midnight, wrapping the mansion in a quiet, cozy atmosphere. The cardboard boxes had been cleared away, and the coven was currently gathered around the fireplace, lazily indulging in a fresh batch of warm, gooey chocolate brownies that Jay had baked to ease his lingering stress. Jake was slouched on a beanbag, Sunghoon was flipping through a poetry book, and Niki was happily munching on a brownie, feeling a deep sense of safety wash over his chest.
Then, the air completely fractured.
A sudden, sharp drop in temperature slammed into the living room, stripping away the warm, sweet scent of chocolate and replacing it with the heavy, ancient aroma of dried herbs and biting frost. The orange flames in the fireplace violently shrank down to dull embers.
Across the polished white marble floor, a series of dark, fluid shadows began to writhe and wiz around wildly like living smoke.
With a silent, terrifying blur of motion, Lee Heeseung materialized in the center of the room.
The Pureblood stood tall, his broad shoulders squared beneath his oversized black graphic hoodie. His voluminous, silky burgundy waves fell perfectly across his pale, marble-carved face, but his appearance was anything but casual. His massive doe eyes were ignited in a brilliant, burning crimson red, flashing with a terrifying, absolute authority and irritation. Dense, ghostly wisps of dark red smoke curled lazily from the corners of his eyelids, evaporating into the cold air like bleeding mist.
But it was the entity floating directly behind him that made Niki choke on his brownie.
Rising from the floorboards were several thick, coiling shadow tentacles, weaving through the air like an unnatural web. And held tightly within the dark, smoky grip of those shadow tendrils was the entire horde of Labubus—clutched by their fuzzy heads and plastic limbs, floating like a tiny, menacing army behind the furious Pureblood.
"What," Heeseung’s voice cut through the frozen silence of the room—a low, velvet, terrifying rasp that made the windowpane vibrate faintly, "is the meaning of this?"
The room stayed perfectly still for a single heartbeat, the sheer power of the Pureblood's aura pressing heavily against their skulls.
Then, the tension entirely dissolved.
Sunoo burst into a loud, frantic shriek of pure delight, throwing his head back against the cushions as he clutched his stomach. "Oh my gods! Look at them! The shadow horde! It’s magnificent!"
At Sunoo’s comment, Jungwon cracked a wide grin and Jake let out a breathless snort from his beanbag. Even the typically cold, aristocratic Sunghoon covered his mouth with his hand, his shoulders shaking with rare, quiet giggles as he looked at the floating monster army. Niki, completely caught off guard by the sheer sight of the floating toy brigade, let out a loud laugh of his own.
"Ah, Heeseung," Jungwon greeted smoothly, his voice casual and light as if they were discussing the weather.
The coven leader stood up from his armchair, walking forward with a bright, dimpled smile and absolute, unbothered composure. He stopped mere inches away from the furious Pureblood, completely ignoring the crimson glow in his irises. With a fluid, relaxed movement, Jungwon reached out, plucking one of the rainbow-eyed secret Labubus directly out of its coiling shadow tendril.
He held the fuzzy toy right up to Heeseung’s face, tilting his head with a playful, teasing grin.
"Come now, don't be so grumpy," Jungwon murmured, his tone dripping with brotherly amusement. "Look at the fur pattern. Look at the little fangs. Sunoo and I spent hours organizing this. We all agreed that these match your exact lifestyle aesthetic perfectly. They represent your dark, brooding inner soul."
Across the room, Jake and Sunghoon let out loud snickers, and Niki broke into another round of laughter, his teenage cynicism completely delighted by the pure absurdity of the visual.
Heeseung’s deadpan, emotionless expression never broke. He stood perfectly still, staring at the tiny monster held against his nose, before his hollow doe eyes drifted past Jungwon to lock onto the laughing fifteen-year-old on the couch.
Without a single word, Heeseung’s shadow tendrils violently dissolved.
The entire hoard of Labubus plummeted through the air, unceremoniously dumping in a chaotic avalanche directly over Jungwon’s head. The plastic toys clattered loudly against the leader's shoulders and bounced across the white marble floor, leaving Jungwon sputtering under a blanket of fuzzy monsters.
Heeseung smoothly turned on his heel, his oversized hoodie shifting as his heavy combat boots thudded softly against the polished stone, heading straight back toward the grand smoky glass staircase to head upstairs.
"One more of these foul, fuzzy monsters inside my private quarters," Heeseung’s low, velvet rasp drifted down from the upper landing, entirely unbothered as he vanished back into the dark vault of the third floor, "and I will burn them to ash along with the whole coven. Clean up your trash, Jungwon."
"Love you too, Heeseungie!" Sunoo screamed cheerfully toward the ceiling, waving a dramatic hand in the air while the rest of them just kept laughing.
"Goodnight, baby!" Jake gasped for air, his shoulders shaking violently with lingering laughter as the oppressive frost in the room finally snapped.
The stone fireplace violently roared back to life, sending a rush of crackling orange warmth sweeping across the marble space, returning the lights to their normal, cozy amber glow. Jungwon stood in the center of the foyer, a fuzzy Labubu still resting precariously on top of his sleek black hair, looking thoroughly unbothered as he winked at Niki.
But later that night, as the mansion finally fell into a deep, silent slumber, no one inside the house knew the truth about what had occurred on the third floor.
Deep within the office, the narrow room sat locked in absolute quiet. The space was stripped of the lower floor's warmth, the open doors leading out to the balcony letting in the cool mountain breeze and the scent of the swaying pines.
Sitting directly in the center of the sleek, dark executive desk—right next to the closed matte-black laptop—was a singular, gradient midnight black and light grey Labubu figure.
Sunoo had purposefully left it there, tucked behind a small desk lamp where it couldn't be easily seen during the prank's cleanup.
Lee Heeseung, who had been lounging on his couch, walked towards his desk, his combat boots making zero sound against the floor. He stopped at the edge of the desk, his massive doe eyes locking onto the tiny, rainbow-eyed monster baring its chaotic fangs at him in the moonlight. The crimson red was entirely gone from his irises, leaving them a hollow, beautiful shade of dark brown.
For a long, silent moment, the last active Pureblood of Korea stood completely still in the dark.
Then, a small, genuine, amused smile gracefully touched the corners of his lips—a rare wisp of emotion that completely vanished into the night air.
Heeseung reached out a pale, ring-adorned hand, his long fingers gently picking up the fuzzy vinyl figure. Walking over to the massive dark weathered oak archives, he carefully cleared a small space against a row of heavy historical novels, and placed the small, mischievous monster securely onto his shelf.