Ji-yeong/Synopsis

The story of Ji-yeong from Squid Game.
==Background==
Ji-yeong is the daughter of a pastor and has no family name. Her father was very physically abusive towards her and her mother. He would always pray after his terrible actions and ask for his sins to be forgiven, causing Ji-yeong to be skeptical about religion. One day, after coming back from school, Ji-yeong witnessed her father holding a knife beside the corpse of her mother. At some point after her mother's death, Ji-yeong herself would murder her father with a knife. This led her to spend some time in jail. 
In 2020, Ji-yeong is a young woman as she finally is released from jail. Outside, someone was waiting for her and she initially thought that this person came to collect her father's debts. However, the person gave her a card offering the chance for her to join the 33rd Squid Game. Having nowhere else to go, Ji-yeong accepted the offer. Ji-yeong was put to sleep and taken by the staff to the island where the games happen, along with other 455 players. There, she was designated the number "240" and the masked workers dressed her in her player uniform before the beginning of the games.
==Squid Game==
==="Stick to the Team"===
Ji-yeong survived the first two games (Red light, Green Light and Dalgona) and the special game, remaining in the competition with other 79 players. Before the third game, the players enter a white room as the announcer says that the next game will be played as a team and they have 10 minutes to form teams of 10. Ji-yeong first appears sitting alone as the teams for the third game are being formed. Kang Sae-byeok approaches her and asks her to come with her to join her team. 
Reunited with Seong Gi-hun and Cho Sang-woo's team around 1 minute before the time is over, Ji-yeong joins the group along with Player 276, Player 196 and Player 244. Sang-woo asks Ji-yeong who invited her to join them, and Ji-yeong replies that it was Sae-byeok. Sang-woo reproves Sae-byeok's choice as he told everyone to bring only men to join their team, having explained that it is to improve their odds as men are better at most games. Hearing this, Ji-yeong feels unwelcomed and says she will leave, but Gi-hun tells her that she can stay because they are out of time to look for other people and they don't know what the game will be anyway. Han Mi-nyeo, who was betrayed and abandoned by the gangster Jang Deok-su, approaches the team. Mi-nyeo says she will join them, stating that she will be more useful to the team than two scrawny girls like Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok. This causes everyone to stare at Mi-nyeo, but the team reluctantly accepts her as they are out of time to look for someone else. 
Moving to the location of the game, they enter a space where there are two huge towers with platforms forming a bridge-like structure but with the middle missing. The third game is revealed to be Tug-of-War and players should pull the rope towards their platform to make their opponents fall to their deaths. As her teammates become anxious when they realize the groups with stronger people have the advantage, Ji-yeong is unfazed. While the teams sit in lines waiting for their turn, Ji-yeong sits behind Sae-byeok and becomes entertained by pulling loose threads from the other girl's tracksuit. Their group is sorted to play against team 5, a group composed only by men. This causes most her teammates to become discouraged, but Ji-yeong still not affected by the terrible odds. In the elevator on the way to the platform where her team will play, Ji-yeong is seen with the same unconcerned look. However, when Player 244, who is a pastor, says that only God can save them now, Ji-yeong stares at him.
Because their team is physically weaker than their adversary group, they have to win relying on strategy. In the end, they survive the challenge thanks to both Oh Il-nam and Sang-woo. Il-nam proposes a strategy for them to win with teamwork. Arriving on the platform, both teams play Tug-of-War after being shackled by the workers to the rope. Ji-yeong and her teammates execute Il-nam's strategy and it temporarily works, until the other team manages to pull back the rope. As they are being dragged very close to the edge and are about to fall to their deaths, Sang-woo thinks in a last minute plan to knock down their adversary team, telling his teammates to move three steps forward.
==="A Fair World"===
Sang-woo's new plan works, allowing them to knock down team 5 and drag them to fall on the edge, winning the game. In third game, 40 people were eliminated and now 40 players remain in the games.
Back in the elevator following the Tug-of-War game, the whole team is exhausted. Ji-yeong is bothered by Player 244, as he continually prays and thanks God that he is still alive. She tells him that he should be thanking Il-nam and Sang-woo for being alive, not God. Player 244 tells her she is an unfortune soul and it is thanks to God choosing to sacrifice their adversary team that they are still alive. Ji-yeong thinks this is all nonsense, because the pastor helped to kill their adversaries. Ji-yeong starts to mock him, saying that if the only thing someone needs to go to heaven is to mumble a few prayers, she is going to try too. As Ji-yeong imitates 244's mumbling, Sae-byeok becomes irritated with them. Sae-byeok tells the two of them to shut up. Outside the elevator, as the team leaves the location of the Tug-of-War game, Ji-yeong asks Sae-byeok for her name. Sae-byeok asks why she wants to know and Ji-yeong says she simply wants to call her by her name. Sae-byeok refuses to reveal her name, so Ji-yeong says that she seems very reserved. Sae-byeok tells Ji-yeong to leave her alone. Ji-yeong reminds Sae-byeok that she was the one who came to talk with her first.
Later, Ji-yeong sits next to Sae-byeok as the team is reunited eating corn for dinner. With 30 minutes left before the lights go out, recalling the fight started by Deok-su's and his gang last night, Sang-woo tells Ji-yeong and his other teammates that they should be prepared in case there is another riot. Player 244 suggests them to attack a weaker team, making Ji-yeong comment that the servant of the Lord is more cruel than the others. When Gi-hun suggests them to set up a barricade, Ji-yeong is seen helping Sae-byeok as their group moves the metal parts of their beds. 1 minute before the lights go out, the whole team is reunited inside the barricade. Sang-woo and Gi-hun then suggest Ji-yeong and the others that they should take turns to keep a watch and prevent members of their group from being killed in their sleep.
Later, Ji-yeong is sleeping on her bed when all players are awakened by the lights snapping up and the sound of a siren. As she and her teammates get out of their beds, they see the masked staff entering the dormitory to check on them.
==="Gganbu"===
After being awakened, all teams stand in lines while being checked by the staff. Then, the announcer says that the fourth game will begin soon. Going up the spiral staircases, the players are surprised at the sight of five corpses hanging from their wrists on a giant mobile: Player 111, two soldiers, a manager and a worker. Despite this, Ji-yeong looks unfazed as a manager explains that this is the fate of the people who broke the rules of the games for their own benefit and tainted the ideology of equality of the competition.
Entering the white room again, the announcer says that players have 10 minutes to form pairs for the next game. Once two people agree to play together, they should shake hands to become partners. Right after, Ji-yeong and her teammates are gathered. After Han Mi-nyeo was rejected by Gi-hun and Sang-woo, Sae-byeok says that nobody will risk their lives playing with women or with Il-nam, who is an old man. The pastor says that God created men and women different for a reason and it is useless to ignore their different functions. Ji-yeong tells him this is ridiculous because they are not playing in the Garden of Eden. Since no one in the team looks interested in play with her, Sae-byeok leaves to look for a partner and Ji-yeong goes after her.
Less than 4 minutes before the time is over, as Sae-byeok is watching other players and looking for a partner, Ji-yeong approaches her and asks to be her partner. Sae-byeok is initially unsure if this is the right choice, so Ji-yeong asks if she will embarrass herself by asking the other players. Sae-byeok responds she doesn't care about embarrassment and tells her she needs to win. Ji-yeong assures that she will win if they play together and she will do whatever it takes to grant Sae-byeok's victory. After being asked about why she invitated Ji-yeong to join the team before the previous game, Sae-byeok says that she did it because Ji-yeong was the only person who looked like she would accept. Ji-yeong says that she is asking to be her partner for this same reason. Ji-yeong offers her hand and Sae-byeok takes it, accepting to be her partner. The two girls sit together in the white room until the time to choose partners is over, then they walk together to the place of the next game.
The location of the fourth game is a room constructed to resemble a neighborhood with small houses and alleys. The players gather next to the entrance and are asked to follow the soldiers who will guide each duo to their positions in the place. After walking through an alley and following the soldier who is leading them, Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok arrive at their position and their soldier escort gives each a pouch with 10 marbles. With this, they discover they will be playing Marbles. However, the pairs won't be playing together, but against each other. Those who win all the marbles of the partner within 30 minutes will pass this game. Ji-yeong is surprised but still calm upon hearing this. She turns to look at Sae-byeok, who is stunned by the news. Ji-yeong says this is really a great tragedy, the biggest one since the Korean War. Sae-byeok immediately asks what they are going to play, making Ji-yeong state that she is so cold. Ji-yeong playfully asks if Sae-byeok is a spy from the North. Sae-byeok tells Ji-yeong to cut it out and say what game they will play already. Ji-yeong states that marbles is something boomers played as kids, so she has no idea. Since the staff said that they are free to create the rules of the game, Ji-yeong says she will try to come up with something.
After reflecting about it, Ji-yeong tells Sae-byeok that they can play and bet everything in a single round. Ji-yeong looks at Player 244 and Player 196 as the two men throw their marbles nearby and asks if Sae-byeok would like to do that until their time runs out. Sae-byeok agrees she doesn't want to spend their entire time like 244 and 196, but still asks what they are going to play. Ji-yeong jokingly says Sae-byeok is in such a hurry because she wants to kill her so much. Ji-yeong recalls that they will only play one round and there is still some time left, so they can do it during the last minutes. Sae-byeok asks what they are going to do until then. Ji-yeong suggests that they should spend their time talking about things they never told anyone, because one of them will die anyway, so they can tell each other anything with no need to be embarrassed about it later. 
Sae-byeok tells Ji-yeong that her family tried to move from the North Korea to the South for a better life, but father was shot while trying to swim across the border and her mother hid in China but later was sent back to the North by immigration agents. In the end, only Sae-byeok and her younger brother entered in South Korea. Sae-byeok tells Ji-yeong that if she wins the prize money, she will use it to buy a house for her family, then get her brother out of the orphanage and get her mother out of North Korea. 
Ji-yeong asks what else Sae-byeok will do with so much money and asks if there is somewhere she would like to go. Sae-byeok says she would like to go to the Jeju Island because it is exotic and different from Korea. Ji-yeong susggets her to think bigger, saying that Sae-byeok should go to Hawaii or at least to the Maldives and drink mojito. Confused, Sae-byeok looks at Ji-yeong and wonders what a mojito is. Ji-yeong explains that it is just like the movie with Lee Byung-hun, in which he says to "go to mojito and have a glass of Maldives". Because Sae-byeok shakes her head, revealing she does not know about the movie or mojito, Ji-yeong laughs. Ji-yeong says she will show her how people splurge in the South and teach more when they leave. Hearing this, Sae-byeok sadly looks away from her and Ji-yeong pauses, reminding that they won't be able to leave together.
Ji-yeong asks if Sae-byeok ever had seen a corpse before joining the Squid Game. Sae-byeok tells Ji-yeong that her grandparents and older brother were killed by a plague going through her town in North Korea and she saw them being burned together. Hearing this, Ji-yeong says that Sae-byeok's stories are way too dark. Sae-byeok then asks her the same question, so Ji-yeong tells the story of her abusive father, who was a pastor. Ji-yeong explains she saw her mother's corpse beside him after he stabbed and murdered her, later Ji-yeong killed him with a knife. Ji-yeong says her father would always pray after doing terrible things with her and her mother, but he didn't do it in the day her killed her mother. Ji-yeong thinks he didn't pray because he knew he would not being forgiven. After being released from prison, someone gave her the Squid Game card and she only joined because she had nowhere else to go. Ji-yeong is not sure where she will go when she leaves the Squid Game, and invites Sae-byeok to go to Jeju Island, but then remembers again that they won't be leaving together.
Less than 3 minutes before their time is up, Sae-byeok turns to Ji-yeong and says that they should play. Ji-yeong agrees and joins her in front of a wall to finally play. They decide to play a simple game of throwing the marbles and the winner will be the one who manages to throw it closer to the wall in front of them. Before playing, Sae-byeok finally tells her name to Ji-yeong. Ji-yeong says that Sae-byeok has a nice name and then reveals hers. Sae-byeok asks for her family name, but Ji-yeong states she doesn't have one. While deciding who should start the game, Ji-yeong says Sae-byeok should play first because her player number is lower. Sae-byeok throws her marble close to the wall, but Ji-yeong drops hers on purpose. 
Sae-byeok is surprised. She grabs Ji-yeong and pushes her against a wall, asking what she is doing. Ji-yeong replies that she lost and claims that the marble just slipped from her fingers. Sae-byeok asks if that is what she meant with "granting her victory". Sae-byeok becomes irritated and says her she won't be grateful for this, telling Ji-yeong to throw the marble again. Ji-yeong says she would not be able to win anyway and she wants to lose in style. Sae-byeok yells that Ji-yeong should stop acting cool and try again. But Ji-yeong then admits she has nothing, no reason to leave the Squid Game alive. Ji-yeong reveals she has been thinking about what she would do once she gets out since Sae-byeok asked her earlier, but she couldn't think of anything, no matter how much she tried. Ji-yeong states that someone with a good reason should be the one to leave because it is the right thing. Ji-yeong thinks that Sae-byeok has a good reason to live, because she has to help her family. Ji-yeong asks Sae-byeok to make sure she survives the games, then meet her mother, get her younger brother back, and go to Jeju Island. Sae-byeok cries because of Ji-yeong's decision. 
As Sae-byeok walks to leave the location with a soldier, she stops as Ji-yeong calls out to her. Ji-yeong smiles and thanks Sae-byeok for playing with her. A soldier shoots Ji-yeong in the head, eliminating her from the games. Sae-byeok flinches at the sound of her partner being shot and falling to the ground. She stands a few moments crying for Ji-yeong. Not looking behind her, Sae-byeok gathers the strength to move on, but leaves the location mourning the loss of her close friend.
==="VIPs"===
Following the fourth game, after the players returned to the dormitory, Sae-byeok still mourns Ji-yeong's sacrifice. A sad Sae-byeok is seen sitting on her bed after players received food to eat. She is so heartbroken that she stares at her food and can barely eat, taking small bites of her potato.
Category:Synopsis