SangHun

"Gi-hun... I'm so sorry."

- Sang-woo's last words to Gi-hun in "One Lucky Day"

SangHun is the slash ship between Cho Sang-woo and Seong Gi-hun from the Squid Game fandom.

Canon
Sang-woo and Gi-hun actually have known each other since they were children, having developed a very close and sibling-like relationship. They would often play Korean children's games together and they were also classmates in elementary school. However, they eventually went on different paths after Sang-Woo enrolled at Seoul National University. Upon graduation, Sang-woo would always be busy with his work and later left for a business trip on America, leaving Gi-hun in contact only with Sang-Woo's mother.

The two met again during the first game, Red Light, Green Light, when Gi-hun recognized Sang-Woo among the players. After half of the players were killed during the game, Gi-hun became scared and paralized on the ground after a player fell over him. Sang-woo noticed his reaction and managed to tell Gi-hun how to survive the game by hiding behind other players. Sang-woo encouraged Gi-hun to move or he would end up dead. Following Sang-woo's advice, Gi-hun managed to go to the finish line before the time was over, and was grateful that Sang-woo helping him. From then on, they decided to form a team so that they can win the games together. Ali Abdul and Oh Il-nam immediately joined their team (with Sae-byeok, Ji-yeong, Han Mi-nyeo also joining later on in the competition).

Before the second game, Sang-woo got information from Kang Sae-byeok to guess what the game will be. He saw he shapes on the doors and recalled a game that he and Gi-hun played when they were younger, Sugar Honeycombs. Instead of telling this discovery to his team, Sang-woo kept to himself. Sang-woo picked the easiest shape, the triangle, and let his teammates decide for different ones. When Sang-woo saw Gi-hun picking the umbrella, which is the hardest shape, he became alarmed with his friend's choice. Sang-woo briefly tried share what he knew with Gi-hun, before hesitantly giving up on doing so. Despite this, Gi-hun managed to carve out the umbrella perfectly by licking his honeycomb, which made Sang-Woo impressed and relieved that he survived the second game.

Both of them made their best to complete the next third and fourth game until Sang-woo killed Player 017 to win the fifth game. Gi-hun asked why he did it, which Sang-woo replied that he did it in order to survive the game and that they would've died if he didn't do it. During night time, Gi-hun tried to kill his friend in his sleep, in order for him and Sae-byeok to win the games together, but she stopped him from doing it. Right after, Gi-hun noticed that Sae-Byeok was bleeding badly and was about to die, so he tried to ask for medical help to the guards. While Gi-hun was distracted asking for help, Sang-woo slit Sae-byeok's throat. Gi-hun hurried back to Sae-byeok's body and tried to kill Sang-woo with his kitchen knife, but was stopped by a guard. After Sae-byeok's body was put inside a casket, Gi-hun yelled and screamed with anger to his friend while being holded down by one of the guards. This led the two friends to become enemies before the last game.

The final game was the Squid Game. The main goal to win the game is the offencer, who is Gi-hun, needs to past through all the three circles on of a grid shaped like a squid, without getting pulled back or being killed by the defender, who is Sang-woo. They both fought each other fiercely, and in the end Gi-hun managed to beat and defeat Sang-woo. Gi-hun got his knife and tried to finish off Sang-woo, but ultimately stabbed the ground as he couldn't bring himself to kill his childhood best friend. Gi-hun then tried to use the games' third clause to end the competition so they both could survive and go home, although this would cause them to lose the money. Gi-hun offered his hand to Sang-Woo, asking for them to go home together. Sang-woo started to reach his friend's hand, but then he apologized and decided to sacrifice himself by getting the knife near him and stabbing himself in the neck. Gi-hun was shocked by Sang-woo's choice, and cradled his friend while begging him not to die. Sang-woo asked Gi-hun to help his mother before dying in his friend's arms, causing Gi-hun to break down in tears while holding his corpse. As result, Gi-hun became the winner of the game and got his cash prize. However, because of this traumatic experience, Gi-hun didn't touch his prize for a whole year, as the money makes him remember all of his friends' deaths, especially Sang-woo's. When Gi-hun finally went to the outside world, he had a hard time when Sang-woo's mother asked if he had news about her son. It's still unknown if Sang-woo's mother knows about the Squid Game and her son's death.

After a year, Gi-hun finally started to use his cash money. Gi-hun decided to help Sae-byeok's younger brother find a home and left him with Sang-woo's mother. Gi-hun then gave a suitcase to Sang-Woo's mother before leaving. Inside it, she found it a great amount of the cash prize, thus fulfilling Sang-woo final wish. Sang-woo's mother also found a note that Gi-hun left with the money, saying "It's the money I owe Sang-woo".

Fanon
SangHun is a popular ship within the fandom mostly because they've known each other when they were younger before the Squid Game. Some fans also ship them because of the "friends-to-enemies" trope among drama thriller shows. Even though this is quite famous, some fans abandon this ship because of Sang-woo and Gi-hun's attempt to kill each other on the two last episodes, even though they reconciled their problems at the last minute of the final game. The ship is rivaled by SaLi, Sang-woo's ship with Ali. One of the memorable moments of this ship being sailed is when Sang-woo decided to sacrifice himself instead of giving his hand to Gi-hun in order to let his friend win the the cash prize and the game.

There are currently 100+ fanfics on A03 and it is the second most written Squid Game ship behind SaeByeong.

Fandom
FAN FICTION



Trivia

 * In the first episode, when they were playing Red Light, Green Light, after Sang-woo crossed the line, Gi-hun and him looked worriedly at each other, since at that point Gi-hun hadn't crossed the line yet and there was only a minute left.
 * The background music was "Fly Me to the Moon", and at the moment Gi-hun and Sang-woo stared at each other, the lyrics "You are all I long for, all I workship and adore" are heard.