What Does Gganbu Mean? The Korean Friendship Term from Squid Game

"We're gganbu, aren't we?"

When Il-nam said those words, I felt something break inside me. I'd never heard the term before, but the context made it clear: this was something sacred, something from childhood, something being weaponized in the worst possible way.

I spent the next hour researching what gganbu actually means. What I found made the scene even more devastating.

What Gganbu (깐부) Actually Means

Gganbu (깐부) is Korean slang that originated in children's marble games. It refers to a partner or close friend with whom you share EVERYTHING—your marbles, your strategies, your wins and losses.

• Partners share marbles from a common pool
• There's no individual ownership—what's mine is yours, fully
• Trust is absolute and unquestioned
• You win together or lose together—there's no competition

The term comes from "깐" (to peel/reveal) and "부" (partner), suggesting a relationship where nothing is hidden. Complete transparency. Complete trust.

Now imagine using that word in a death game.

Why This Scene Broke Me

In Episode 6, players are paired for the marble game. Il-nam, appearing confused and childlike, asks Gi-hun to be his gganbu.

Here's the devastating irony that took me a minute to fully process: in a TRUE gganbu relationship, there IS no competition. What belongs to one belongs to both. By invoking this sacred childhood bond, Il-nam creates a paradox. How can you compete against someone when everything is already shared?

Gi-hun's moral crisis becomes our moral crisis. He's being asked to exploit the purest form of friendship to survive. When he finally "wins" by taking advantage of Il-nam's apparent dementia, I felt physically sick—even though (as we later learn) Il-nam was manipulating the situation all along.

That's brilliant, brutal writing.

How Gganbu Went Global

• The term trended worldwide on Twitter for days
• Halloween costumes featured "gganbu" matching outfits
• Dictionary sites added it to their watch-lists
• Korean language learning apps reported massive spikes in "gganbu" searches

Why did it resonate so deeply? I think because it names something universal—that childhood experience of absolute trust and shared fate that becomes rarer and rarer as we get older. We all had a gganbu once, even if we didn't have the word for it.

Squid Game weaponized nostalgia, and "gganbu" became its sharpest blade.

More Korean Friendship Words I've Learned

Since falling down this rabbit hole, I've explored other Korean friendship concepts:

• 친구 (chingu): General word for friend (you've probably heard this one)
• 절친 (jeolchin): Best friend, short for "절친한 친구"
• 막역지우 (magyeokjiu): Literary term for inseparable friends
• 동무 (dongmu): Comrade/friend (more common in North Korea now)

None carry quite the same weight as gganbu—that specific childhood bond forged through shared games and absolute trust. Nothing else quite captures it.