Ji-yeong

“	You have a reason to leave this place. But I don't.	„
	― Ji-yeong explaining her sacrifice to Kang Sae-byeok

Ji-yeong (지영), also known as Player 240, was a participant in the 33rd Squid Game in 2020. She appears in the episodes "Stick to the Team," "A Fair World," and "Gganbu."

Ji-yeong endured severe physical abuse throughout her life and was ultimately imprisoned for killing her father in retaliation after he murdered her mother. Seeking a fresh start, she entered the 33rd Squid Game and joined Seong Gi-hun's team. During the competition, she formed a deep bond with Kang Sae-byeok. In the fourth game, Marbles, Ji-yeong selflessly sacrificed herself so that Sae-byeok could advance, choosing to lose on purpose and accepting her elimination.

Names	Ji-yeong (지영) Player 240
Gender	Female ♀
Race	Human
Occupation	Unknown
Origin	Squid Game (오징어게임 Ojing-eo Geim) Season 1 Episode 4: Stick to the Team (쫄려도 편먹기 Jjollyeodo pyeonmeoggi) September 17, 2021
Alignment	Good
Age	20s
Created By	Hwang Dong-hyuk
Height	162cm (5ft 4in)
Weight	48 kg (105.8 lbs)
Personality Type	ENTP, 7w8 (Enneagram)
Portrayed By	Lee Yoo-mi ( 이유미)

Appearance

Ji-yeong is a young woman with a petite frame, standing at approximately 5'4" (1.63 m). She has shoulder-length black hair, often slightly messy, and dark brown eyes. Her facial expressions frequently shift between a relaxed, indifferent demeanor and moments of deep emotion, particularly when opening up to Kang Sae-byeok.

She wears the standard green Squid Game tracksuit with the number 240, along with a white undershirt. Unlike some contestants who appear more tense or fearful, Ji-yeong carries herself with a laid-back attitude, though her posture and expressions subtly reflect the pain of her past experiences.

Personality

Ji-yeong maintains a calm and nonchalant demeanor, seemingly unfazed by the life-or-death nature of the games. She is not easily intimidated and carries an air of quiet resilience. However, her traumatic past leaves her deeply critical of religious hypocrisy, as seen in her interactions with Player 244, whom she openly challenges. Despite her guarded nature, she is capable of warmth and humor, particularly around Sae-byeok, with whom she shares some of her most heartfelt moments.

Biography

Background

During her childhood, Ji-yeong suffered severe physical abuse at the hands of her father, who later murdered her mother by stabbing her to death. In retaliation, she killed her father, a crime that led to her incarceration. After serving her prison sentence, she entered the 33rd Squid Game with little concern for her survival, believing she had nothing left to live for in the outside world.

Her father was a pastor who frequently sought God's forgiveness while abusing his family. However, Ji-yeong noted that he did not pray when he killed her mother, believing he knew he wouldn’t be forgiven. This deep-seated trauma contributed to her disdain for Player 244, whose religious fervor and hypocrisy reminded her of her father.

33rd Squid Games

Before the third round, Sae-byeok recruited Ji-yeong to join Team 4, an alliance including Cho Sang-woo and Seong Gi-hun. While Sang-woo initially objected, preferring male recruits, Ji-yeong nearly left but was encouraged to stay by Gi-hun. With the strategic guidance of Oh Il-nam and Sang-woo, their team secured victory in Tug of War.

In the next round, players were instructed to select a partner. As they passed through the staircase room, they saw the bodies of Byeong-gi and his co-conspirators hanging from the ceiling as a warning against cheating. The Front Man reminded them that the games were designed to be fair, with no tolerance for rule-breaking.

Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok chose to pair up, unaware that they would soon be pitted against each other in the fourth game, Marbles. Players had to win all of their opponent’s marbles through a sub-game of their choice without resorting to violence. The one left without marbles would be eliminated. With a strict 30-minute time limit, failure to declare a winner by the end would result in both players' deaths. The revelation that they had unknowingly partnered with someone they trusted shocked the contestants.

As the timer for Marbles runs down, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong delay playing, instead spending their time talking and getting to know each other. Neither wants to participate, so they reveal their pasts. Sae-byeok shares that a plague in her North Korean village took the lives of her grandparents and older brother. Her family attempted to escape to South Korea for a better life, but only she and her younger brother succeeded. Her father was shot and drowned while trying to cross the border, and her mother was caught and deported back.

Ji-yeong then recounts her own tragic history—her father, a pastor, regularly abused her and her mother while hypocritically praying for forgiveness. One day, she returned home from school to find that he had murdered her mother. In retaliation, she killed him and was imprisoned. She received the Squid Game invitation card on the very day she was released.

When Ji-yeong asks what Sae-byeok would do with the prize money, Sae-byeok says she would rescue her mother from North Korea, buy a house for her family, and perhaps take a vacation to Jeju Island. Ji-yeong playfully teases her for choosing such an ordinary vacation, suggesting she should aim for something grander. She promises to take Sae-byeok on a girls' shopping trip before the reality of their situation sets in.

As the game nears its end, they finally agree to play. They decide that whoever throws their marble closest to the wall will win. Sae-byeok takes her turn, landing her marble fairly close. However, to her shock, Ji-yeong simply drops her marble on the ground, intentionally losing. When Sae-byeok protests, Ji-yeong explains that after opening up to her, she realized she had nothing left to live for, while Sae-byeok still had a future worth fighting for. She tearfully urges Sae-byeok to live a full life if she makes it out alive.

As Sae-byeok is led away, Ji-yeong calls out to her one last time, expressing her gratitude for their time together. Moments later, she is executed. Sae-byeok, overwhelmed with grief, cannot bring herself to look back and can only listen in silent anguish as her friend is killed.

Trivia

• It is implied that she may have been sexually abused, as she mentions her father did the "unthinkable" to her.
• During her conversation with Kang Sae-byeok, she states that she does not have a family name.
• Ji-yeong appears to be an atheist, as she criticizes Player 244 for thanking God for his survival, arguing that he should be thanking his teammates instead.
• In the original script, Ji-yeong was intended to be male and named Ji-young. However, during the series’ long development, the director changed the character to a female, believing that a "bond between women" would better suit the story.
• She is the only character in Squid Game without a surname.