Sooha hates vampires. Not in the casual, “I don’t like horror movies” way. She hates them with a white-hot fury that only comes from loss. The kind that frames your entire life around a single, burning need for revenge.
And honestly, you can’t blame her.
In Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, the anime adaptation of a webtoon based on K-pop group ENHYPEN, Sooha’s hatred is a coping mechanism. It’s her way of dealing with the death of her only childhood friend. She even enrolls at Decelis Academy, a prestigious night school with a strict anti-vampire policy. She wants access to their extensive library so she can learn how to wipe vampires off the face of the earth.
The cruel irony is that Sooha’s new set of friends are the very thing she despises most.
Sooha’s Tragic Backstory
Sooha isn’t your typical human. Born with superhuman strength, Sooha was ostracized as many people mistook her for a vampire.
Chris was the only person who ever saw Sooha for who she really was. When rumors swirled that this lonely girl sitting under a tree might be a vampire, Chris approached her anyway.
When she revealed her power to him, Chris told her it was cool. He trusted her so completely that he offered to let her bite his neck just to prove it.
During a fire at his house, Sooha lifted a concrete wall to save him. Chris reaffirmed his trust and told her she couldn’t possibly be a vampire.
Then a real vampire killed him.
And society blamed her for his death.
Sooha’s hatred of vampires is inseparable from her hatred of what people think she is. She’s spent her entire life being regarded with suspicion, forced to move from city to city. The very thing that makes her special marks her as a monster in everyone’s eyes.
Society taught her that humans are victims, vampires are the bad guys. So she directed all that rage and grief outward, toward the creatures she thinks took everything from her.
Except the truth is more complicated than that.
Vampires Show More Humanity Than the Humans Ever Did
At Decelis Academy, Sooha meets seven boys: Heli, Jino, Shion, Solon, Jaan, Jakah, and Noa. They’re charming, protective and inexplicably drawn to her. When they discover her superhuman strength, they don’t even flinch. Heli, who can communicate telepathically, promises to keep her secret if she keeps his. The group explains that they all have special abilities.
They become the first friends she’s made since Chris.
The twist is that they’re all vampires.
The very people offering her kindness, understanding, and protection are the very beings she wants to destroy. Meanwhile, the human institutions that should have protected her, schools, neighbors, entire communities, dehumanized her at every turn.
This plot twist symbolizes the way marginalized people will find community among others who’ve been cast out. Sooha and the seven boys share the experience of hiding who they really are, of being seen as dangerous simply for existing. The boys don’t judge her for her strength or demand her to be normal. They accept Sooha as she is.
Sooha Has a Secret Connection to Vampires
Just when you think Sooha’s story couldn’t get any crazier, the webtoon reveals she’s implied to be the reincarnation of Selen, an ancient vampire queen who possessed powerful shamanic powers.
In her past life, Selen ruled the Kingdom of Vargr. Sooha’s superhuman strength comes directly from Selen’s shamanic abilities. When the villain Dardan attacked and fatally wounded her, Selen used her dying breath to share her powers with her seven loyal knights. She sent them to a distant future, so they could protect her when she reincarnated herself.
Those seven knights? They’re Heli, Jino, Shion, Solon, Jaan, Jakah, and Noa. The same boys at Decelis Academy. Not only that, but Selen had a forbidden love with Heli too.
Hatred as Self-Rejection
Sooha’s hatred of vampires is really hatred of her own difference.
She’s spent years trying to fit into a world that sees her as someone who came out wrong. She’s convinced herself that if she could destroy all vampires, everything would finally be alright. But that’s the lie trauma tells us. If we can just eliminate the external source of our pain, we’ll be okay. Sooha can’t destroy vampires without destroying the part of herself that connects her to Selen and the seven boys from Decelis Academy.
The Blood Altar forces her to ask herself “what if the vampires aren’t the problem?”
Her journey isn’t about learning that “not all vampires are bad” or some sanitized message about tolerance. She needs to confront the fact that her grief, her rage, her mission is built on misdirection.
Sometimes the thing we hate most is a mirror. Healing doesn’t kick in until you shatter that reflection and learn to see clearly for once.
