Chapter 23.5

Chapter 23.5
Information
Written by	Míriam Bonastre Tur
Illustrated by	Míriam Bonastre Tur
Released	September 7th, 2021 (English) January 12th, 2022 (Spanish) March 10th, 2023 (Catalan)
Publisher	HarperCollins (English)
Thumbnail characters	None

Chapter 23.5 is a special episode featured at the end of the print edition of Hooky (Volume One). It takes place sometime during the events of Chapter 23 in the book, which covers episodes 48 and 49 in the original WEBTOON.

Summary

One night while shrunk and sleeping in Monica’s doll house, Nico wakes up. He climbs over to Dani to wake her up, startling her as she believes he’s a cockroach. Nico asks her if she thinks he might be able to preform magic if he wears all black, since Dorian told him that witches are supposed to wear black clothes. Dani tells him that clothes are just clothes, prompting Nico to point out that she wears the most colorful pajamas to prove she’s not a witch. Dani relents and says she’ll help, but wants to ask Monica for advice.

The next day, Monica gleefully accepts, since she loves dressing up dolls (much to Nico’s disdain). Monica wishes they could ask Dorian for advice, since he’s an expect on witch etiquette. Dani explains he’s busy night now, and explains she told him about some magical creatures in the swamp.

Elsewhere, we see Dorian in the swamp with Carlo, attempting to catch frogs and leaning in to kiss one.

It cuts back to Monica dressing up Nico. We see him in an outfit reminiscent of Dorian’s original clothes, one like Dani’s original dress and hair bows, and one in an old-fashioned wizards’ robes and hat. Nico voices his dislike of them all. Finally, we see Nico wearing a black leather jacket and pants, combat boots, and buckled hat. Monica says she took inspiration from Alex’s outfit, which Nico approves and Dani blushes over.

Suddenly, Dorian bursts into Monica’s room, saying that which he didn’t find any magical creatures, he managed to transform Carlo into a person- albeit more of a small, human-toad hybrid. Monica and Dani comment how cute Carlo looks, while Nico says he looks disgusting, and says Dorian would be better off trying to find a way to turn him back to his normal size. Dorian, amazed, says Nico looks super cool dressed as a witch (again, to Nico’s disdain). Dorian then runs out of the room, with Monica and Dani telling Nico to not be so rude. Dorian comes back in the room, dressed in a similar leather getup as Nico. Dani says he looks cool, while Monica looks amazed and blushes. Nico almost asks her if she likes Dorian, which she interrupts and says that it is just the “bad-boy effect”, and anyone can look super cool and mature by wearing those clothes. Dorian takes notes on this, while Dani looks at Nico again, commenting to herself that she understands now.

Characters in Order of Appearance

• Nico
• Dani
• Monica
• Dorian
• Carlo

Trivia

• Like the other chapters featured in the Hooky volumes, it has not been confirmed if they are actually canon to the story or not.
  • Based on the timeline of events, this chapter likely takes place sometime between episode 48 and 49, or takes place right after episode 49 and before episode 50.
  • Dani is seen wearing one of her overall dresses and hair bows in this chapter. Since she starts to wear these after shopping with Monica at the end of episode 49, it seems likely it takes place after that episode.
• If the chapter is canon, it is one of the first times when it's been hinted that Monica realizes she has a crush on Dorian and Dani realizes she has a crush on Nico.