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Not on anon XD but still wanted to send an ask. How do you think it would play out if Saebyeok and Jiyeong were the ones who were the final players? Would they vote to end the game or would Jiyeong want Saebyeok to win?
hi!! thank you for the ask, this an interesting one!
I genuinely see them leaving together; I think Ji-yeong might go in with the intention of giving up her life, but I think Sae-byeok would plead with her not to.
in the fourth game, Ji-yeong was willing to die for Sae-byeok.
after another game, another brush with death, and two more nights together, with fewer people to come between them and more opportunities to talk? I think the heart-to-heart they had in the marble game would have happened organically even if they didn’t play that game together, in another way at another time. a lonely night watch together. a moment of vulnerability somewhere.
what I mean is, I cannot see Ji-yeong willingly leaving Sae-byeok having become closer than they already were. Sae-byeok is everything Ji-yeong needs — family, love, shelter, someone who cares and will fight for her. someone who can love her.
and Sae-byeok would fight for her. she begged Ji-yeong not to die for her, and she wouldn’t allow her to here. Ji-yeong could step out of the squid and lose the game, but I think Sae-byeok would stand in her way and tell her that she’ll leave with her. that she’ll fight for her. that they’ll make it work. Ji-yeong doesn’t have nothing any more. they have each other.
finally: when Ji-yeong played the marble game with Sae-byeok, she repeatedly talked about what they would do together once they left. she was so enamoured with the idea of spending life on the outside with Sae-byeok that she literally forgot that one of them had to die. that is not the thought process of someone who has already decided to give up their life.
when the gun was pointed at Ji-yeong, she was holding back tears. she was scared. she didn’t want to die, she chose to because she valued Sae-byeok’s life above her own. because the alternative was continuing a life that she saw no meaning in, knowing that Sae-byeok’s life was ended for her. it wasn’t worth it.
given the choice between death, a life without Sae-byeok — financially assured, but at what cost? — or to leave together, with a home to go to? Ji-yeong isn’t a pessimist. the moment Sae-byeok shared her dreams with her — Jeju island, a home, a family — they became Ji-yeong’s dreams as well. she wanted them for Sae-byeok, and she wanted to be there with her.
they’re leaving together, Sae-byeok immediately takes Ji-yeong into her apartment — or wherever she’s staying. she’ll make it work, for her — and they start over.