“Why would she choose him though, he’s manipulative and he gaslights her all the time!”

“As opposed to the guy that forced himself on her when she clearly wasn’t interested?”

“At least he cared enough to stay, unlike Mr. Moody over here, who runs away from the problem instead of working it out with her!

“Aish, you two shut up!”

The last statement was from Yong, who had to sit up and pause the movie just to glare at Wheein and Hyejin, who  were currently sitting on opposite ends of the living room. Between them, and right next to Yong, Byul was laughing around a mouthful of potato chips.

“Why’d you stop them?” The demon said, trying to wrench the remote from Yong’s hand, “It was just getting to the good part!”

Yong threw a hard glare Byul’s way. “We’re supposed to be watching a movie!”

Wheein settled back into her seat, she wasn’t angry per se but she did think Hyejin was wrong. She’s not one to judge or condemn a person for their opinions, especially not a roommate and one of her best friends. But in this case, she was absolutely, one hundred percent, sure that Hyejin was wrong. She would take it to her grave.

“You know I’m surprised,” Byul said, thoughtfully, popping another chip into before passing the bowl to Yong. “I would have thought that Hyegi would be rooting for the moody vampire and Wheein-ah would be panting after the shirtless werewolf.”

“Not as surprised as I am that these two have never watched one of the most popular supernatural teen romance movies of the last decade.” Yong muttered back, accepting the bowl and settling back down on the couch. 

“This is why covens don’t encourage us to watch movies that have plotlines centered around our own kind. They always end up over romanticising what it means to be a vampire.” Hyejin said, pointing an accusatory finger at the screen, where the movie was paused on a scene where the lead girl was stopping a fight between the vampire and the werewolf who were both desperately in love with her. Played by actual vampire and werewolf actors so. Plus one for inclusivity.

“Aside from the fact that this vampire would make a horrible boyfriend if he was a normal human,” Hyejin continued, “He also has no redeeming qualities aside from the fact that he apparently spent his immortality going to college several times and learning piano. Where’s the personality?”

“He obviously cares more!” Wheein said again. “Besides, you guys are lucky. Hollywood always typecasts vampires as the cultured ones, meanwhile werewolves are always labeled as the hot-blooded impulsive ones. And like I said, he forced himself on her. Totally a non-redeeming quality!”

Hyejin scoffs, but there’s a smile on her face. “At least the werewolf is definitely hotter than the vampire.”

They’re silent. It was a running joke of sorts in the franchise after the second movie. They were on the fourth one now. Byul was staring resolutely at the potato chip bowl, lips clamped tightly together. Yong had her face in her hands but her shoulders were already shaking. Wheein had to physically fight to keep her face straight.

A beat, and then they all broke.

Yong’s high-pitched squeals as she doubled over in laughter was equally matched in volume by Byul’s full-bellied chuckles and Wheein’s all-consuming laugh. Hyejin was already tearing up from how much she was laughing.

“This movie really , huh?” Wheein said, between laughs.

“If you ask me, you guys have the better end of the stick.” Yong said, she leant back and took a few deep breaths once her laughter had passed.  “Every time they try to make a movie about angels we’re always depicted as pretentious, holier-than-thou types.”

“That’s only cause the actual angels on Earth dont actually go about becoming actors,” Byul replied breezily. “Now demons--”

“Yeah, yeah we get it.” Hyejin waved her hand dismissively. “Demons love getting into show business. We know.”

“I’m pretty sure the majority of actors from America are demons.” Wheein said thoughtfully, she turned back to the screen and frowned distastefully. “Except these two. Obviously.”

“There are many vampire and werewolf actors and actresses all over the world.” Yong reasoned, “Especially vampires. The hours just work for them.” She turned to Byul now, “Acting just isn’t a very angelic career choice.”

“Can we get back to the movie now?” Hyejin whined.

A collective sigh rose up around the room. 

“Come on, we’re already on the fourth one!”

“That just means we have to endure one more after.” Wheein pouted, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

Without warning, Yong picked up the remote and pressed play again, all of them falling into silence as the movie picked back up. They all lasted about thirty more minutes until the movie reached it’s obvious climactic point. Then Yong picked up the remote and paused the movie again without prompting. All of them were staring at the screen, more than a little shell-shocked. 

“I’m--” Wheein began, staring curiously at Hyejin. “Pretty sure that doesn’t happen in nature.”

“No. It doesn’t!” Hyejin had a throw pillow over her face, her voice tinted in obvious disgust. “This movie is anti-vampire propaganda and I now refuse to watch a single second.”

Byul was laughing again, the demon’s entire upper half was practically on Yong’s lap.

“You said this was based on a book?” Wheein said, “didn’t the author even bother interviewing actual vampires and werewolves before she started writing?”

“The most that happens if a vampire sleeps with a human is we slip up a little and take a drink from them. Not--” Hyejin peered past the pillow she was hiding behind and grunted in disgust again, “Whatever this is!”

“Next time, I’m vetoing the movie!” Yong said, tapping the remote once to exit the movie screen, and then again to return to the Netflix home page.

“We’re not even going to finish it?” Byul asked. Her smile was mischievous though and she had that twinkle in her eyes that she usually got when she was joking. 

“We just watched a woman get ‘impregnated’ by a vampire when everyone with half a brain cell knows that isn’t physically possible.” Yong said, already flipping through other movie choices. “Aha, what about this one?”

“Three part teenage slasher film?” Byul read from the movie’s synopsis. 

“Anything’s got to be better than what we just watched,” Hyejin said, “play the movie.”

Suffice to say, the slasher trilogy had a better love story.