$0 NL HE MTT: Should I have folded KJs pre-flop?

It was a GGPoker daily freeroll to weekly, with 2000 tickets paid. The starting stack was 10000 and my placing was about 1000, and the bubble was bursting soon, probably the next hand, with about 2015 players remaining.

I got KJs at UTG+1 and, under normal circumstances, a KJs is clearly a raise. The flop hit the top pair and I continued to c-bet but the villain, having the longest stack, didn't fold. Eventually I was forced to fold to protect my placing.

Should I have folded the hand pre-flop instead?

GGPoker, Hold'em No Limit - 1,000/2,000 (400 ante) - 9 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 45,184 (23 bb)
UTG+1 (Hero): 30,974 (15 bb)
MP: 20,409 (10 bb)
MP+1: 11,845 (6 bb)
LP: 8,011 (4 bb)
CO: 80,607 (40 bb)
BU: 50,893 (25 bb)
SB: 142,008 (71 bb)
BB: 37,320 (19 bb)

Pre-Flop: (6,600) Hero is UTG+1 with J♠ K♠
1 fold, Hero raises to 6,000, 5 players fold, SB calls 5,000, 1 fold

Flop: (17,600) J♦ 2♣ 3♠ (2 players)
SB bets 8,800, Hero calls 8,800

Turn: (35,200) 3♦ (2 players)
SB bets 11,616, UTG+1 (Hero) folds

Total pot: 35,200
SB wins 35,200

The tournament ends with 2k players and there is nothing more than the ticket to be won. So yes you should fold 100% since u can get the ticket by folding untill 2k players are left.

You should have been running the clock and folding everything including AA there buddy, at least you saw sense and ended up folding! Guessing you made the ticket?

....Yes👍

Yes its a 100% fold in this situation. You risk a lot of Chips maybe your tournament.
So if its sure you can get under the 2000 with your stack, so sit out or fold every hand and wait till we end of your timebank in every hand before fold.

And position UTG+1 is not perfekt for this spot, if you get a 3-bet you must fold.

If this was a satellite, where top 2.000 won the same price, and 2.015 were left, then you clearly did not need any more chips to cash with so many shorter stacks hanging around. So you should fold even AA preflop and just wait for someone else to bust the last 15 players. If it was a normal MTT, then you should either min-raise or jam pre. And if you min-raise, you should not fold top pair postflop.