| SPOILER WARNING! This article contains spoilers from Season 1 & 2 |
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- Hyung, why?
- —Jun-ho asking In-ho in "Front Man"
Hwang Bros is the family ship between Hwang Jun-ho and Hwang In-ho from the Squid Game fandom.
Canon[]
Season 1[]
At first, we know nothing of the Front Man's identity but we do learn that Jun-ho is searching for his brother that went missing a few days ago, right before the Squid Games started. At the police station, Jun-ho sees Gi-hun being kicked out and while asking what was up with him, he sees a suspicious business card that the player left behind. Later that same day, he visits his brothers apartment where he finds a business card, similar to the one that Gi-hun left behind at the police station. He then asks about Gi-hun's home address at the police station to learn more about the games. He waits for Gi-hun near his house and begs for him to help but the other refuses as he states he's not in the position to help.
After Gi-hun decides to join the games again, he gets taken to the island where the games take place, meanwhile Jun-ho follows the car he is in. After knocking out a worker and dropping them into the water, he then infiltrates the games by dressing up as the guard. Later, after Jun-ho becomes a manager by stealing a mask from a dead one, the guards are asked to intervene the Special Game. He comes up to Gi-hun and asks whether he knows who "Hwang In-ho" is but he gets informed by the player that they only refer to each other by numbers.
When they are tasked to deliver the organs and go down the ladder to a cave with gear equipment, the worker under the number 28 becomes suspicious of Jun-ho and shows his knife asking him to take off his mask. Jun-ho draws his gun instead and they have a conversation where he finds more about the operations of the Squid Game, as well as where the information about the players is kept. After shooting the worker, he decides to climb up the ladder until he reaches the vent. Jun-ho breaks into the office by shooting the vent and then opens up all the doors. In one of the rooms he finds a suspicious door and enters it, where he finds shelves filled of blinders with documents. He starts searching throughout them until he finds a suspicious business card, just like the one in his brothers apartment. He finds a list of all the winners of the Squid Game, with one of them being his brother. He then picks up a folder titled under the year of 2015 and while searching through the documents of the players, he confirms to himself that the player under the number 132 was his in fact his brother, In-ho.
The Front Man is told that a worker died and he checks the bullet that was shot into the head, recognizing that it belongs to a gun that's issued for Korean Police. After the Front Man finds out there is an intruder on the island, he later goes to pick up a call in his office. Upon answering the call from his telephone, The Front Man realises that someone broke in because he always hangs the phone differently. Then, he draws his gun and starts checking every room to see where the intruder is. While he is searching for them in his office, he calls them out on being a cop and explains how he knows it, then asking to reveal themselves. He then enters the room with the documents and before he could search further, as he realises that the intruder already checked it, he gets a call. The Front Man is informed that they found a body on the coast of the island and leaves the room where Jun-ho was hiding. Upon seeing the body of the dead worker, he's given the identification of the mysterious cop and finds out that it's Jun-ho. He tells the guards to burn the body of the dead worker and leaves.
Later, Jun-ho is under disguise as a waiter for the VIPs and gets asked by one of them to take his mask off. He refuses as he's scared he'll get recognized by the Front Man and they choose to go to one of the special rooms instead. Then after some time has passed, the Front Man is informed that the VIP was knocked unconscious and finds out that one of the waiters was the intruder. The Front Man later goes to his office to try and find the intruder, when he sees that the vent is open and decides to check inside. He sees Jun-ho, after he climbed all the way down, who looks back at him before he disappears. The Front Man with his guards then go try and find Jun-ho on a speedboat, while he is swimming to the nearest island after putting on diving gear.
In-ho offering his hand to Jun-ho
Jun-ho gets to the nearest island and runs up the hill for better internet connection to send the proof of the games existing to his chief, as well as calling him to send backup. He gets spotted by the guards and he continues running until he runs into the edge of a cliff. He meet face-to-face with the Front Man and he shoots him in the shoulder, asking him who he is. On his request, the Front Man takes off his mask and reveals that he was In-ho the entire time.
Jun-ho shaking his head in answer
He offers his hand to his brother and asks for him to join but Jun-ho doesn't take it and instead shakes his head asking why, referring to why he has done all of this. In-ho then with supposedly no choice, decides to shoot him in the shoulder. Jun-ho falls from the cliff and dives facing with his back into the water. In-ho looks over the cliff with guilt on his face and puts his mask on before leaving the island. After he gets back on the main island and In-ho is cleaning his wound while looking at the mirror, he hallucinates Jun-ho.
Season 2[]
Jun-ho wakes up in a coma after one year with his mom, Park Mal-soon, by his side. While talking to the police chief over lunch, he gets asked about the Front Man and whether he remembers the face of who shot him. He claims that he doesn't.
As requested by his mother, he goes to check on In-ho's dead wife grave as it's the anniversary of her death. He visits it with a saddened face and leaves a set fresh of flowers, as it's implied that In-ho didn't visit it because the current flowers were dead. In his mother's apartment, Jun-ho and Mal-soon have a conversation over dinner. Jun-ho talks to his mother about In-ho and she mentions that she's scared that he left them because she wasn't as close to him. She starts blaming herself, to which Jun-ho answers saying that In-ho has given him his kidney out of his choice and that she shouldn't blame herself as neither were at fault for what happened.
Jun-ho goes to search more about Gi-hun after he finds out he's still alive. When Jun-ho arrives to the Pink Motel and wakes up after being hit by Woo-seok on the head, he's interrogated by Gi-hun. During their conversation, Jun-ho lies to Gi-hun about not seeing the Front Man's face. Then after some back and forth, Jun-ho and Gi-hun team up in order to take down the games. Then, they try to find the island after their plan fails and Gi-hun is taken back to play the games again, unbeknownst to them that Captain Park is a traitor.
Moments[]
- In-ho's hand was shaking when he was going to shoot Jun-ho.
- They both have a scene looking at their shoulder wounds.
- While cleaning his wound and looking at the mirror, In-ho hallucinates Jun-ho as he looks back at him in distress.
- Jun-ho after a year long coma, looks at his shoulder wound in the mirror.
Quotes[]
- In-ho – “Join me”
- Jun-ho – “No... Why?”
- — In-ho and Jun-ho on the cliff
- “Hyung, why?”
- — Jun-ho as In-ho's hallucination
- “In-ho”
- — Jun-ho's first words after he wakes up from a year long coma
- “Your brother... He saved your life by giving you one of his kidneys.”
- — Mal-soon talking about In-ho to Jun-ho
- “If he hadn't given me his kidney, he could've sold it and gotten her the treatment she needed.”
- — Jun-ho talking to his his mom about In-ho
- Police Chief – “Did you see who shot you?”
- Jun-ho – “No, I couldn't see him”
- — The Police Chief asking about the games
- Gi-hun – “Did you see the Front Man's face?”
- Jun-ho – “No”
- — Jun-ho lying to Gi-hun about the Front Man, In-ho
Fanon[]
The two are a beloved in the community and people wish for the two to set aside their differences to get back together with their mother. However, this is Squid Games and nothing happy ever happens. A popular belief in the community after the release of Season 2 is that Jun-ho and In-ho have the same father, as they are said to be half-siblings by Park Mal-soon, their mother. This resulted in the Il-nam Dad Theory which states that both In-ho and Jun-ho might be related to Il-nam. Some people even believed that In-ho was adopted, however that was a mistranslation in the English subtitles, or rather a misunderstanding because of the way their mother put it into words.
People like to mention little details between the two, such as their shoulder wounds or matching kidneys. It is believed that Jun-ho looked up to In-ho which would be a reason as to why he also became a police officer. When In-ho has his gun pointed at Jun-ho, his hand is shaking as if he's hesitant to shoot him and people like to think he really didn't want to do it. After Jun-ho wakes up in a coma, it is later mentioned that he was saved by Captain Park which promted people to think that it was In-ho who called for the captain to get his brother out of the water. People also like to think that the reason why Jun-ho hasn't found the island or isn't dead is because the captain works for In-ho and told him to keep tabs on his brother.
There is a deleted scene where In-ho brings two fishes to his apartment, which can later be seen dead when his brother checks his apartment in the show. There are different interpretations as to what the fishes are supposed to represent, with one popular interpretation that they represent In-ho's family. People also like to imagine that the two fishes represent In-ho's dead wife and his brother, Jun-ho. However, there is a different interpretation where the two fishes are represent In-ho and Jun-ho because the fishes in the bowl seem to be of the same species, specifically Platy Orange Gold.
In works depicting them in the canon universe, one or the other has to experience their brothers death or rarely sometimes even die together. Rarely do the two ever make it out alive in these kind of works but exceptions do occur. In works usually set in AU's, Jun-ho always teases In-ho and gets his nose into his brother's business if he's shipped with another character, that usually being Gi-hun. Other works like to write the two in AU's where they aren't as close and usually only see each other for job-related matters, or at least Jun-ho is trying to get In-ho to be like his former self if he still experiences the loss of his wife in said universe. Most fanworks of the two either depict their relationship like in the show or imagine how they were like before the games. As well as, there are AU's depicting the two living together with their mother with no issues whatsoever.
In content involving the brothers, they are usually shipped with other characters. Jun-ho either gets shipped with Gi-hun or The Salesman while In-ho usually gets shipped with Gi-hun. On the other hand, they are sometimes both shipped with Gi-hun resulting in Hwang Sandwich where the two try to pursue Gi-hun without the other knowing, which results in the Sibling Triangle trope. This usually happens in AU's where the Squid Games don't exist, or even set in the canon universe where they just both happened to fall for him, again without them knowing of the others attraction to Gi-hun. When they are in poly ships such as Gihun's Harem or Hwang Sandwich, they are usually never shipped together and settle for the third party/main person or other people in question.
There are however a minority of fans that ship the two more than just brothers, as evident by how many works there are of them written under the slash tag.
On AO3, there are over 270+ works of the two under the platonic tag and over 160+ works under the slash tag.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Hwang Junho & Hwang Inho tag on AO3
- Hwang Junho/Hwang Inho tag on AO3
- TIKTOK
- Hwang Bros tag on TikTok
- Hwang Brothers tag on TikTok
- Hwang Bros posts on TikTok
- Hwang Brothers posts on TikTok
- Junho & Inho posts on TikTok
Trivia[]
- They are half-brothers. The actor of In-ho, Lee Byung-hun, has stated this in an official Netflix video.[1]
- This is also supported by Park Mal-soon, their mother, as she says that she isn't as close to In-ho as she is with Jun-ho which would make her In-ho's stepmother.
- They are opposites when it comes to their dominant hands. In-ho is left-handed, while Jun-ho is right-handed. This is proven by the way with which hand they hold their weapons in.
- They have both worked for the police. In-ho worked as a police officer and detective, meanwhile Jun-ho worked as a police detective.
- They have matching kidneys. In-ho has donated one of his kidneys to Jun-ho prior to the games.
- They have matching shot wounds on their shoulders. Jun-ho has shot his brother in the right shoulder, while In-ho has shot him in the left shoulder.
- They both have killed people by their necks. Jun-ho strangled a worker by their neck when he infiltrated the games and In-ho snapped a players neck during Mingle.
- In all the scenes where Jun-ho is asked about the Front Man and In-ho, he never told the truth and lied about him.
- Jun-ho calls In-ho "형", Hyung or Hyeong, which means "older brother" in Korean. Men use it to refer to men older than them, and is usually used by younger brothers to refer to their older brothers but can be used for non-relatives as well.[2]
- There is a deleted scene with In-ho bringing two fishes to his apartment and putting them into a fishbowl while Jun-ho is seen to be looking up at his window. This is presumably a scene that would show what happened before the events that occur in Squid Game.[3]
- The actor for In-ho has stated that In-ho shoots Jun-ho in a way that purposefully doesn't kill him, and says that the guards believe that Jun-ho died.[4]
- In the same video, Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of Squid Game, confirms it by also saying that In-ho shot Jun-ho in the shoulder on purpose.[4]
- The actor of Jun-ho, Wi Ha-joon, in an official Netflix video has stated that In-ho was everything to Jun-ho for half of his life, as well as that he looked up to his older brother a lot.[1]
- The actor for Jun-ho has talked about Jun-ho's relationship with In-ho and what the character felt during Season 2. In the interview, he admits that Jun-ho did look up to In-ho since a very young age and his motivation to keep on searching for his brother is a complicated mix of love and rage towards his brother.[5]
- The same actor has also stated that if Jun-ho and In-ho met again in Season 3, their reunion would be intense as Jun-ho would feel sad, angry but also happy.[6]
- Director Hwang Dong-hyuk has confirmed that the storyline between the two brothers was added last minute while writing the script, after it was decided Squid Game would be a show instead of a movie.[citation needed]
Gallery[]
Variations[]
- Gihun's Harem refers to the ship between the two, Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo, The Salesman and sometimes Park Jung-bae
- Hwang Sandwich refers to the ship between the two and Seong Gi-hun
- Il-nam Dad Theory refers to the ship between the two and Oh Il-nam
- Jun-ho x Gi-hun x The Salesman x In-ho refers to the ship between the two, Seong Gi-hun and The Salesman
- SaleHwangs refers to the ship between the two and The Salesman
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Looking Back at Squid Game Season 1 | Netflix
- ↑ The Meaning of Oppa, Hyung, Noona, Unnie, Sunbae and Hubae
- ↑ Squid Game S1 | Unreleased Clip | Netflix
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 'Squid Game' Cast Recaps Season 1 with Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk | Entertainment Weekly
- ↑ Wi Ha-jun of ‘Squid Game’ on the Challenges of Brotherly Love
- ↑ Wi Ha-joon Talks ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 And 'Emotional' Reunion With The Front-Man
[]
 | ||
| • Squid Game Ships ▴ Squid Game Characters ▪ | ||
| SHIPS | het | 555 • 07069 • DaeJu • ForkBee • Eulseok • HyuHun • HyunSales • Hyunseok • HyunSik • NyeoSu • Semigyu • Seminsu • Thanmi |
| slash | 457 • 324250 • Alihun • Aliwoo • Daeggyi • DaeHun • FrontOfficer • Frontsales • Juncruiter • JunHun • MathHun • SalesHun • Sangihun • ShyPills • Thanggi • Thangyu | |
| femslash | Hyunmi • HyunNyeo • Jibyeok • Semina | |
| poly | FrontSalesHun • Gihun's Harem • Red Flag Magnet | |
| family | Hwang Bros | |
| friendship | Gi-hun's Team • JeongWoo • SaeHun • SaeWoo • Thanos Team | |
| cargo | Front Man x Whiskey • Gi-hun x Umbrella • The Salesman x Gun • Young-mi x Door | |
| CHARACTERS | female | Cho Hyun-ju • Se-mi |
| male | Hwang In-ho • The Salesman • Seong Gi-hun • Thanos | |