| SPOILER WARNING! This article contains spoilers from Season 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
- You can do it. Don't die in here, okay? And go... and go meet your mother. Go get your brother too. And go to Jeju Island. [...] Kang Sae-byeok! ...Thanks, for playing with me.
- —Ji-yeong's final words to Sae-byeok in "Gganbu"
Jibyeok is the femslash ship between Kang Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong from the Squid Game fandom.
Canon[]
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong meet for the first time
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong meet each other at a remote island while they're both participating in mysterious survival games. Prior to the third game, contestants are instructed to form teams of ten players. Sang-woo, one of the unofficial leaders of the group, proposes they each bring in one man to improve their odds, saying that men tend to excel women at most games. With this, Sae-byeok starts looking for a teammate and spots Ji-yeong sitting by herself at the stairs. Seeing like-minded solitude and distrust in her, Sae-byeok ignores Sang-woo's instructions and invites Ji-yeong to join their team.
The game is revealed to be a Tug-of-War, where the losing teams will plunge to their deaths. Their team ends up victorious. Leaving the tower, Ji-yeong asks for Sae-byeok's name, but Sae-byeok refuses and tells Ji-yeong to leave her alone, to which the latter counters that it was Sae-byeok who approached her first.
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong shake hands, becoming partners for the fourth competition
The fourth game requires teams of two. Sae-byeok, not interested in begging anyone from her team to pair up with her, leaves to search a partner by herself. As she is looking around, this time Ji-yeong approaches Sae-byeok and asks her to play with her. Although reluctant at first, Sae-byeok accepts Ji-yeong's offer when the latter assures her to do whatever it takes to grant her victory, and the two of them form a team. However, soon a twist is revealed: the partners have to play against each other, and the first one to gain all of their opponent's marbles within thirty minutes of the game, wins, as the loser of the game will consequently be killed.
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong are declared rivals
With the timer ticking down, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong sit down to mull over what game to play. Neither of them are in any particular hurry to do so, due to the life or death stakes of the game, and also because both are hit hard with revelation that they have to compete against each other. Since the players are free to create the rules of the game, Ji-yeong suggests that she and Sae-byeok play betting everything in a single round during the last minutes of the game, instead of spending the entire time doing it and in the meantime, they talk, disclosing things they had never told anyone, seeing as one of them will die either way, to which Sae-byeok agrees.
Ji-yeong listens to Sae-byeok talking about her family
They start recounting their pasts to each other, with Sae-byeok telling Ji-yeong how her family tried to move from North Korea to South Korea for a better life. However, her father was shot dead, attempting to swim across the border and her mother was caught by public security officers in China, then sent back to the North. She also tells Ji-yeong her grandparents and older brother died from a plague in her village, leaving her and her younger brother the only ones who successfully migrated South Korea. Amidst Sae-byeok's story, Ji-yeong asks the former what she will do with the cash prize if she wins. Sae-byeok responds that she will ensure an abode for her brother and herself, after which she will secure her mother from the North. Ji-yeong urges Sae-byeok to dream bigger and the latter shares her wish to visit Jeju Island she had seen broadcasted on TV.
Ji-yeong, in turn, reveals that she and her mother were abused by her father, who was a pastor and would pray for forgiveness every time he harmed them. One day when coming home from school, she found her mother, stabbed to death by her father's hands, whom she later killed in an act of retaliation. She received a calling-card to the games the same day she was released from prison, to which she came with nowhere else to go. Realizing she hasn’t thought about what she would do if she made it out of the games, Ji-yeong asks Sae-byeok if the two of them should go to Jeju only to remember that they won't be able to leave together.
.gif){kind=link}
Sae-byeok cries after Ji-yeong's death
With the timer closing in on zero, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong decide to determine the winner of the game by seeing who throws one marble closest to the wall in front of them. Before doing so, Sae-byeok reveals her name to Ji-yeong, as the latter does the same, with Sae-byeok noticing that Ji-yeong has no family name. Sae-byeok throws her marble close to the wall. Ji-yeong, however, drops hers at her feet on purpose, deciding to sacrifice herself so Sae-byeok could win. When Sae-byeok instantly advances on her, distraught with her decision, Ji-yeong explains that she has no reason to win since she has nothing left in life to come back to, whereas Sae-byeok still has her family. At last, Ji-yeong asks Sae-byeok to survive the games and live her life to the fullest. With the game over, Sae-byeok wins and heads for the exit, she stops as Ji-yeong calls her. She smiles and thanks Sae-byeok for playing with her. A guard shoots Ji-yeong in the head, eliminating her from the game as Sae-byeok cries quietly.
Afterwards, Sae-byeok is seen deeply affected by Ji-yeong's sacrifice. Upon returning to the bedroom, Sae-byeok still mourns her friend's death as she is visibly dejected, barely eating the lunch handed to her.
As a result of Ji-yeong's act of kindness, Sae-byeok stops being as paranoid about the other players and begins trusting others. This is most evident when she starts to look out for Gi-hun, who was kind and helped protect her in the games. In her dying moments, she trusts him to take care of her little brother.
Quotes[]
- Main article: Jibyeok/Quotes
Fanon[]
Jibyeok is on of the most popular ships within the Squid Game fandom. Not least due to the show's lack of "official" romance and the seemingly incredible chemistry between the two. Many fans online made the ship even more famous by doing edits, TikToks or other fan content, where people expressed their support for the ship and discussed possible homoerotic connotations in their relationship. One of the most iconic scenes that most fans remember of this ship is when Ji-yeong sacrifices herself so Sae-byeok can survive. There are currently over 550 works written for the ship in AO3.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Ji-yeong/Kang Sae-byeok tag on AO3
- TUMBLR
- Jibyeok posts on Tumblr
- Sae-byeok x Ji-yeong posts on Tumblr
Trivia[]
- Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong's actresses, Ho Yeon Jung and Lee Yoo-mi, are good friends. In an interview Yoo-mi said: "We're the same age and we share similar interests, so we got along really well. When we were filming, we kept discussing Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok's feelings. There was no way we wouldn't grow close. So I guess we were meant to be?"[1]
- Ho Yeon says that Yoo-mi was always very considerate when she talked about her concerns in acting. "Since I trust her, we talked about many things. So I think it all wrapped up nicely. I'm still thankful for her." - Ho Yeon said.
- Ho Yeon And Yoo-mi got emotional while filming the scene of Ji-yeong's sacrifice for Sae-byeok. As soon as the directors called “Cut,” both actresses let out their tears. Ho-yeon even walked away in order to compose herself again with the makeup artists taking the time to wipe the tears off her face. Once the scene was succesfully shot, Ho Yeon rested her forehead on Yoo-mi's shoulder while crying.[2]
- When Ho Yeon was asked who her favorite character was in Squid Game, she replied "Ji-yeong, of course!".
- Yoo-mi said in an interview that she wanted Sae-byeok to live.
- The director of the show, Hwang Dong-hyuk, during a commentary with Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, and art director Chae Kyoung-sun remaked on Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong's relationship; "They're complete strangers, but there's some kind of friendship between them. A bond formed in a short period of time. Empathy and understanding of each other. I thought they would be the perfect example to portray such feelings."
Gallery[]
- Main article: Jibyeok/Gallery
References[]
[]
 | ||
| Squid Game Ships • Squid Game Characters | ||
| SHIPS | het | 07069 • 120 x 246 • 196 x 230 • NyeoSu • Seminsu |
| slash | 457 • 324250 • Alihun • Aliwoo • SaleHun • Sangihun • Thangyu | |
| femslash | Hyunmi • Jibyeok | |
| friendship | Gi-hun's Team • SaeHun | |
| CHARACTERS | male | Seong Gi-hun |