Ji Yeon-su works gomtang restaurant shifts 4 months after Eli's remarriage: "I want to feed my son well"

Ji Yeon-su posted a YouTube video titled 곰탕집 150그릇 서빙 on the 3rd, documenting her daily routine at a gomtang restaurant where she has been working part-time for four months.

She serves more than 150 bowls per day. Coworkers had no idea she was a former celebrity—one found out only when another staff member mentioned it. "She really works well. She greets people well too," one colleague said. Another noted she complains her arms hurt from carrying 100 to 150 bowls every shift.

The reason she took the job is specific: employees receive one bowl of gomtang as a benefit, and Ji Yeon-su skips her own meals to pack it up and bring it home for her son Min-su's breakfast. "I work here because I want to feed Min-su premium two-bone Korean beef gomtang until he's full," she said. She also noted she couldn't afford that grade of beef on her own.

She clarified she has no ownership stake in the restaurant: "This is not my store. I am just an employee with no involvement in operations." She got permission to film before releasing the video.

Ji Yeon-su has held multiple part-time jobs at restaurants and cafes. Dishwashing at a pork cutlet restaurant was the hardest: "The dishes never ended. I thought I was going crazy. It was really a dishwashing hell."

On hiding her identity at work: "False images of me spread, and people didn't want to hire someone like that even if they paid. So I don't mention it first." She was fired from a previous job simply for being Ji Yeon-su.

"I have no time to feel self-pity," she said. "If I live trapped in that era, there is no progress. I must live in the present."

Min-su, who had perfect attendance with no tardiness or absences in his fourth-grade first semester, told his mother: "When you come home, I can see from your smell and expression how hard it is. From now on, I'll hug you every day. I'm sorry."

Ji Yeon-su married U-KISS member Eli in 2014. The two had Min-su in 2016 and divorced in 2020. She has been raising Min-su alone since. Eli announced his remarriage in June.