Borihye

Borihye is the femslash ship between Lee Jihye and Na Bori from the Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint fandom.

Canon
Na Bori and Lee Jihye are best friends and were also classmates at the same high school which was Daepong Girls' High School. Although there were very little moments between them due to Bori's early death during rounds 0-1864 (killed by her best friend at the first scenario), the ones available were really memorable not only for Jihye, but also the readers. Though their interactions are minimal, it seemed as if both had a strong bond during their school life though not having a deep developing.

It is known that, when Bori and Jihye were classmates in their daily lives when scenarios didn't exist, Na Bori was friendly and teasing towards her friend, having nicknamed Jihye "crybaby". She is also casual with regards things from the school, asking if Jihye wanted to skip class in her first onscreen appearance. It is also known that she cares about her friends even at her own expense, with he being alright Jihye killing her so as long as she would survive. This is shown in chapter 4, where Bori could be briefly seen in the broadcast of channel #BAY-23515 when she is strangled by Jihye to death, ultimately passing away and Jihye is left as the last survivor from her school. In all regressions Lee Jihye has to always kill her, her death always being broadcasted on said channel.

Due to Bori's death being by her own hands, Jihye uses to struggle with survivor's guilt and often doubts about her own abilities, mainly after murdering Na Bori in the first Main Scenario, causing a "trauma" that would haunt Jihye at times. One example is during the Theatre Dungeon, during the  sub-scenario when she's unable to pull herself together, as she was crouched below deck, throwing up and crying. Kim Dokja asks Lee Jihye to endure, before revealing that he knows her sickness is due to their current movie being the favorite of [Na Bori]. The teenager is startled enough to listen to him, and he demands to know if she killed her best friend only to die cowering like this. Upon his demand that she at least try to save some lives now, she comes with him to the deck, where Kim Dokja rallies alongside Jung Heewon and Lee Gilyoung to fight off the Japanese raiders that were attacking them. Jihye, while startled, flashbacks about a certain memory she had with Na Bori, which was them smiling at each other inside a cinema. Jihye then exclaims that she is too disgusting to be allowed to live, but Kim Dokja reminds her that everyone that was still alive has killed people, and that she should survive and atone for the blood on her hands. He then informs her that if she didn't fight, she'd die. Her desire to survive spurs her into action, and ultimately manages to end the movie. She's later put to rest by Kim Dokja after the sub-scenario.

Lee Jihye keeps a keyring attached to her sword, being a gift from Na Bori. This is mentioned few times in the novel and graphically shown in the manhwa. One of the instances of this occurrence is when Kim Dokja (on his squid form) notices the rob hanging from Lee Jihye's sword, having already known the identity of it, and quotes her being "a scarred sword demon" for a long time. During Lee Jihye and Kim Dokja's chat about the novel, especially about the past back then in middle school, they momentarily go silent, the girl looking at her sheath nostalgically, and once again Kim Dokja mentions the keyring which was hanging from the sheath, repeating having knowledge about the identity of the object. Noticing her sad look, Kim Dokja asks her if she's okay, to which she questions in answer if he knew about the keyring, him only answering knowing a little bit. It was the one Lee Jihye always carried with her after the death of [Na Bori] in the first scenario. Remembers the girl's last words of her giving up on life in order to help Lee Jihye advance. "「 “Jihye. Kill me. It’s okay.” 」"

- Memory of Na Bori before being strangled to death by Jihye.

Kim Dokja mentions that Lee Jihye was "a person who never forgot the sins she committed", and her killing her friend despite she was glad Jihye was alive even at the expense of her own life, it was the main nightmare haunting her. Their chat is interrupted by the sound of the safety device Dokja had placed beforehand in order to detect unknown presences in the forest, staying alert.

Time later, during Kim Dokja's Company's search to gather fragments of Kim Dokja's soul by regressing into a new turn together (1865), Na Bori is seen seated in her school classroom with Lee Jihye. Na Bori offers for them both to cut night classes and head out together somewhere, but is turned down by her friend, who claims they should focus on their studies as high school students. Na Bori becomes worried about Jihye's uncharacteristic behavior, and is even further perturbed when Jihye pushes a small box on her hand, asking if there were bugs inside it (since she didn't like them at all). She watches, confused, as Lee Jihye heads out to the broadcasting room from the school. It is presumed that, upon the start of the scenarios from the current regression, she had killed a grasshopper inside Jihye's gift, and at the same time clearing the Main Scenario 1 she couldn't survive during the 1864th regression.

Having her surviving all of the scenarios, Na Bori appears later when KimCom is about to return to their own worldline. She's safe and around, and is seen by Jihye doing laps on the track of an athletics field. Heewon and Jihye are having a brief conversation as this happens, with Heewon reassuring Jihye when the latter is unsecure of this result, with Na Bori surviving in a wordline in which Jihye couldn't stay in, as everyone had to cross the world-lines again to return home and also bring Kim Dokja back. Heewon promises treating her with something tasty the same day.

Quotes
"'Crybaby'. When was the last time she heard someone call her that? Once upon a time, she had other nicknames like that. And she had truly returned to such a time."


 * Bori – "Really? I was just asking, but why so suddenly?"

"The other girl's eyes arched as if she was smiling. For every single day during the past four years, Yi Ji-Hye had never forgotten those eyes. They belonged to a pale-skinned girl somewhat smaller than her. The blouse of her school uniform was missing a button. Her worn-out name tag, where her name could still be found."

- Chapter 531, Epilogue 2 – Not found anywhere (6).

Fanon
Like with other ships, it's a rarepair but it's also known due to Jihye's introduction being tragic as she had to kill her own best friend to survive, even having the latter's consent. Although Bori is alive in regression 1865, it doesn't remove the fact that Jihye wouldn't recover easily psychologically. The fandom itself has a big amount of angst not only in history, but also with ships, mostly those who tend to be between Kim Dokja and anyone or side characters with their own partners (which are mostly dead or either separated example being Gong Pildu and his wife or Joongyuk and Seolhwa). However the romance topic isn't focused inside the story, which is why the majority of the pairings, either platonic or romantic, don't tend to be permanent, but temporal.

At first instance, no one knew about Na Bori's name, which is why it wasn't known in first place besides not being on-screen for too much time. For those who knew (novel readers), understood the depth of Jihye's relationship with her, and also the care for the latter. Many of Jihye's fans felt pity towards her, as she has to carry the memory of her killing her best friend with her own hands. Although Na Bori was introduced very briefly, it caused fans wanting Jihye to reunite with her again by either creating fan arts or fan fictions, making it a "Fix-It" or an AU in which nobody died. There is rarely any fan art of both, but if there is, it's Na Bori appearing as a ghost, spectating Lee Jihye and how the latter mourns over her death in Main Scenario 1. In fan fictions, it depicts both of them living normally attending to school as either a romantic couple or just as best friends, but mostly it's only angst (canon divergence) depicting Jihye suffering over her trauma of killing Na Bori, although in cases the latter's death is only temporal, and eventually both can comfort each other. It tends to be paired along with others like Joongdok, although only under as the tag of "Lee Jihye & Na Bori", as there are people who see them as only best friends like in canon, with no real developing on the pairing throughout the story.

Borihye is usually shipped since Jihye's ships are very uncommon as she's a teenager whilst inside the Kim Dokja's Company there are only adults and kids only, with no one of the same age as her. Although, outside the company, she is also shipped with Kim Namwoon, rivalizing Borihye. Although as mentioned, she tends to be shipped with Namwoon due to him having a canonical crush on her (at least their 999th regression counterparts, while in 1864th they had minimal interactions with him calling her cute), and how he's a "simp" for her, and also both being similar in being teenagers and extroverts. For those who can't choose between both, polyship's always a solution for most fans, though they'd prefer avoid that since the three of them are still minors.

So far, It's Lee Jihye's second most popular ship just behind the semi-canon ship Jihwoon (Jihye and Namwoon), and also rivalized by this one. It has currently 30+ works on AO3 as romantic and 21+ as platonic/gen.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Na Bori's name wasn't known until the semi-final of the novel, so no ship name could be thought of for her and Jihye. This would change afterwards, though no agreed ship name has been announced.
 * The ship has also surprisingly several works on AO3 (though rare fan arts) although their interactions were limited, unlike Jihwoon.