Joongdok

Joongdok is the slash ship between Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk from the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint fandom.

Canon
Yoo Joonghyuk was the protagonist of Kim Dokja's favourite web novel, "Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World" or "Ways of Survival" in short. Kim Dokja read WoS steadily since his 3rd year of middle school, when he was being bullied. He also read it when he flunked his entrance exams, when he was placed in the forefront of the military unit, and also when he repeatedly changed his jobs. He used to say "I am Yoo Joonghyuk" to himself during his difficult times when he was young. For Kim Dokja, Yoo Joonghyuk was like a father, brother and best friend. Kim Dokja was a big fan of Yoo Joonghyuk. He liked, hated, grumbled and cheered Yoo Joonghyuk on, and that's why he read over 3000 chapters of WoS. The novel, and especially Yoo Joonghyuk were Kim Dokja's ways of surviving.

Episode 2- Protagonist
Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja's first meeting was not the best. Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk were in adjacent carriages in the subway where the scenarios started. After the 1st scenario ended, Kim Dokja decided to escape from Yoo Joonghyuk, since he was sure that Yoo Joonghyuk would kill him and the other people in his carriage if he reached them. However, he felt terribly weak after his fight with Kim Namwoon. He had no choice but to confront Yoo Joonghyuk.

Yoo Joonghyuk had held Kim Dokja in a chokehold seconds after meeting him. As Kim Dokja was the sole reader of WoS for over a decade, his understanding of Yoo Joonghyuk was already very high, and he could read Yoo Joonghyuk's thoughts. Yoo Joonghyuk was suspicious of Kim Dokja's existence, as only Lee Hyunsung and Kim Namwoon were supposed to survive in his carriage. Yoo Joonghyuk debated whether to kill Kim Dokja, as he felt like Kim Dokja was an abnormal factor in his 3rd regression. Kim Dokja lied to him by saying that he was a prophet, and asked Yoo Joonghyuk to accept him as a companion. To test Kim Dokja's credibility, Yoo Joonghyuk hung Kim Dokja on top of the Ichthyosaur infested river from Dongho bridge. Yoo Joonghyuk asked Kim Dokja to predict whether he would throw him on the river or not. Kim Dokja, knowing Yoo Joonghyuk's personality from WoS, knew that he would surely throw him in the river. After telling his condition to Yoo Joonghyuk, Kim Dokja gave him his answer, Yoo Joonghyuk proceeded to throw him off the bridge with a smile on his face, telling Kim Dokja that he finally believed that he was a prophet. Kim Dokja fell on the mouth of an Ichthyosaur after that.

Episode 4- Line of Hypocrisy
Yoo Joonghyuk had thrown Kim Dokja to the Ichthyosaur to test whether he was good enough to be his companion. He had waited for 3 days for Kim Dokja to come, but Kim Dokja still didn't appear. Yoo Joonghyuk was disappointed, as he thought that if Kim Dokja took any longer to escape, he would be a hindrance to him. He told himself that it wasn't a big deal, since he had been alone for a long time and he decided to keep moving forward alone. Yoo Joonghyuk left too soon, as Kim Dokja had escaped from the Ichthyosaur 4 days after the monster had eaten him. After Yoo Joonghyuk's POV, the novel had switched back to Kim Dokja's POV. Kim Dokja said that he had a very vivid dream.

After Kim Dokja reached Geumho station after killing the Ichthyosaur, he reunited with Lee Hyunsung, Yoo Sangah and Lee Gilyoung. Lee Hyunsung told Kim Dokja that he was glad that Yoo Joonghyuk was right on his assumption that Kim Dokja was probably alive. Kim Dokja asked Lee Hyunsung where Yoo Joonghyuk was, to which he replied that he left Geumho station the day before. Kim Dokja wasn't really surprised by that, as he knew that Yoo Joonghyuk was in a rush, even though he didn't know why.

Episode 7- Landlord
After reaching Chungmuro station, Kim Dokja asked Lee Jihye, one of Yoo Joonghyuk's followers, whether Yoo Joonghyuk was there. Lee Jihye, who was suspicious of Kim Dokja asked him who he was. Kim Dokja replied that he was a companion of Yoo Joonghyuk who had came back alive, but Lee Jihye didn't quite believe him, so he told her that Yoo Joonghyuk would understand if she told him. When Lee Jihye told him that Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't there, Kim Dokja told her that he wanted to say something to him. Lee Jihye asked a boy to watch over Kim Dokja's crew while she left to find the protagonist. The boy asked Kim Dokja whether they were really Yoo Joonghyuk's friends, to which Kim Dokja replied that he was a good friend.

Kim Dokja offered Gong Pildu to give him information about Yoo Joonghyuk in exchange of letting him and his friends sit in his green zone. This caused quite a reaction, as Yoo Joonghyuk had caused an uproar not too long ago. Gong Pildu asked Kim Dokja what his relationship with Yoo Joonghyuk was, to which he replied that they were companions separated by life and death. Gong Pildu didn't quite believe that, so Kim Dokja decided to trick him by baiting him. Kim Dokja knew that Gong Pildu had to accept his suggestion, as Yoo Joonghyuk could cause an imbalance in Chungmuro. Kim Dokja refused to pay money to Gong Pildu for invading his property, so Gong Pildu wanted to kill him. Kim Dokja stopped him, telling him that he will die if he killed him as Yoo Joonghyuk arrived in the scene. Kim Dokja called Yoo Joonghyuk his "best companion". Yoo Joonghyuk was disturbed seeing Kim Dokja alive, looking at him with fierce eyes. Kim Dokja activated Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint stage 2 to read Yoo Joonghyuk's mind, but Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't thinking anything at all. He greeted the protagonist, but got no reply from him. To make Lee Jihye and Gong Pildu believe that they really where companions, Kim Dokja asked Yoo Joonghyuk to tell them that he was his companion. Yoo Joonghyuk opened his mouth to reply, but Kim Dokja didn't let him speak, interrupting him by saying that he wanted to use the bathroom. In the end, Yoo Joonghyuk didn't call Kim Dokja his companion, but only pointed his sword to Gong Pildu, who let them go without putting up a fight.

Kim Dokja was thankful of Yoo Joonghyuk's help, and after using the bathroom, he told him that it was nice to see him. He internally called him a rotten companion after Yoo Joonghyuk admitted that it would have been good if he had died. Kim Dokja became angrier after he saw Yoo Joonghyuk's brazen face, and he wanted to punch him on his jaw, but he didn't do it. Instead, he decided to read Yoo Joonghyuk's character list, and understood how extra ordinary Yoo Joonghyuk's list was, a fact he hadn't realised while reading the novel. Kim Dokja was reading his mind, and Yoo Joonghyuk was once again wondering whether he should kill Kim Dokja, as he thought he was being tenacious. Yoo Joonghyuk was disappointed at Kim Dokja, as he had picked up Lee Hyunsung, but only managed to raise his level by a small amount.

Kim Dokja asked Yoo Joonghyuk why he left Gong Pildu alive. The regressor replied that if Kim Dokja was a prophet, he should know. Kim Dokja didn't remember all of what happened in the novel, and he told the protagonist that he didn't know everything. Yoo Joonghyuk told him that he needed Gong Pildu in the future, and was annoyed when Kim Dokja asked him why he didn't kill the landlord's group of followers. Kim Dokja was getting angry at Yoo Joonghyuk, and asked him whether he could hit him. Yoo Joonghyuk said that he could if he had confidence, but Kim Dokja didn't do it, as Yoo Joonghyuk had activated a self defence skill. Yoo Joonghyuk left with Lee Jihye after that.

Lee Jihye eventually came back, and talked to Kim Dokja for a while. Yoo Joonghyuk came after her, and told her to go back to her room. Yoo Joonghyuk asked Kim Dokja whether he was going to fight the monsters of the scenario, to which he shrugged. Yoo Joonghyuk told Kim Dokja that he would die with his companions. Kim Dokja simply replied, "That remains to be seen." Yoo Joonghyuk left after glancing at Kim Dokja with an unknown emotion in his eyes.

The third scenario had started, and Kim Dokja ran with Lee Gilyoung on his back to find the green zone he had read about in the novel. However, his plans were foiled as Yoo Joonghyuk was already in the green zone. Kim Dokja asked him why he was there, and whether he could get out, as there was no reason for him to be there. Yoo Joonghyuk simply replied that he couldn't, as he was tired. Kim Dokja wanted to punch the regressor. He had no time to dwell on it, and asked Yoo Joonghyuk whether he could take Lee Gilyoung. Yoo Joonghyuk said at the same time to give him Lee Gilyoung. Yoo Joonghyuk was sure that Kim Dokja would die, but was surprised when he saw the spectre's stone, which allowed him to become a ghost temporarily, allowing him to escape from the grolls. Kim Dokja lost consciousness after that, and when he woke up, he saw Yoo Joonghyuk talking with Lee Gilyoung. Lee Gilyoung rejected Yoo Joonghyuk's offer to join him, and Kim Dokja read his thoughts, trying to decipher what the protagonist's motive was. He fell asleep again, and by the time he woke up, Yoo Joonghyuk was gone.

Quotes
"Make me your companion. I can fill in the parts you are missing."

- Kim Dokja to Yoo Joonghyuk, Chapter 11

"Release your hand and get lost, you damn son of a bitch."

- Kim Dokja to Yoo Joonghyuk, Chapter 11 "I am a companion of Yoo Joonghyuk who came back alive."

- Kim Dokja to Lee Jihye, Chapter 28 "Have you been well? Your face looks good."

- Kim Dokja to Yoo Joonghyuk, Chapter 29 "Anyway, I didn't want to alienate Yoo Jonghyuk right now. In order to clear the multiple scenarios, Yoo Jonghyuk was a necessary person. Even if we weren't real companions, it was worth using him thoroughly....Why did it sound like I was making excuses?"

- Kim Dokja, Chapter 29.

Fanon
Joongdok is an extremely popular ship within the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint fandom. Fans ship it because of how much mutual trust and support they have for each other. In AO3, Joongdok is the most written ship for both Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk, and it has a wide fanbase. The ship does have a bit of resistance from fans who see it more as a bromance. There are rival pairings like Kim Dokja x Han Sooyoung, Yoo Joonghyuk x Han Sooyoung, Yoo Joonghyuk x Lee Seolhwa, Kim Dokja x Yoo Sangah, and a few more- people also ship Yoo Joonghyuk x Han Sooyoung x Kim Dokja as an OT3 instead, but that doesn't go against Joongdok- but Joongdok is still the most popular ship in the fandom.

Due to it's popularity, many like to assume that the novel was, in fact, a romance novel disguised as a supernatural-angsty one. It also fueled due to the fact that there is a canon art in which depicts Kim Dokja's face in third's person, being none other than Yoo Joonghyuk's point of view of Kim Dokja (heavily implied due to Yoo Joonghyuk's reflection on Kim Dokja's sword). Comparing the postcard by the Webtoon's creator, Sleepy-C, with a panel of Yoo Joonghyuk's face on Kim Dokja's point of view, fans conclude that his was a sign that both might love each other, as they look very different from what they seem to be in their respective view, Kim Dokja being prettier in Yoo Joonghyuk's view, and obviously this latter being handsome as Kim Dokja always described several times throughout the story.

It's quite also controversial due to the fact that none of Kim Dokja's ships were canon at the end of the novel, as it was an open ending, leaving his current relationships as platonic. Also because Kim Dokja sees Yoo Joonghyuk as his idol, family figure, and a friend, while it's not explicitly said what he is for Yoo Joonghyuk, but assumed that he's his ⬛⬛. Putting aside the fact that people tend to prefer ships like Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja (mostly treated as a BROTP), or Seolhwa and Yoo Joonghyuk (canon in YJH's past regressions), their treat to each other wasn't the best either, with the usual choking and psychical damage and so. However, their relationship progressed as the story continued, still having a feeling of discomfort to each other. This would change afterwards, with Yoo Joonghyuk doing everything on his reach to save Kim Dokja along with Kim Dokja's Company, being put as the main and vital role of it.

In fan fictions, the setting of the story in which both characters' bond with each other is sometimes incluiding canon divergence, or AUs like with almost every ship existing. Fans also enjoy to assume that some fan fictions are written by Uriel (embodiment of Joongdok's shippers according to fans), as she's the "captain" of the ship because of most of the time she supports Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk's "comradeship". Sun Wukong also tends to be included on as Uriel's buddy and also another supporter of the ship. Kim Dokja's denial on Yoo Joonghyuk actually caring for him is what makes the ship interesting in a way, because it actually ends up being true as this latter had always appreciated and cared the way he was, no mattering of his looks or even if he was only an ordinary person. There's also "jealousy" in Kim Dokja's part, due to him wanting Yoo Joonghyuk pair up with Lee Seolhwa as that was what the history had set in first place, but also feeling different later after thinking on that.

Ultimately, since the ship is canonically supported by several characters in the novel/manhwa, it's loved not only for that, but also for the canon care Yoo Joonghyuk has for Kim Dokja even if this latter assumes that the first was only an "emo sunfish bastard" and would not care about anyone besides his loved ones. The mutual feeling of wanting to save each other fuels the ship even more, Kim Dokja preventing Yoo Joonghyuk on regressing again and this latter not allowing Kim Dokja sacrifice himself more times than he ever did for his teammates.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Joongdok means "addiction" in Korean language.
 * Common symbol used for this ship on several media include: 🐟🦑.