BIBI Ate Leftover Office Food Until She Got Sick Before Tiger JK Stepped In

Singer BIBI got candid about the realities of her early career on the July 30 episode of MBC's Save Me! Holmes, sharing that she used to visit her agency's office primarily to eat a proper meal because she couldn't afford food on her own.

The show's cast was swapping stories about the lengths they'd gone to in order to save money after moving to Seoul. Host Kim Daeho recalled washing laundry with dish soap when he ran out of detergent. Model and TV personality Joo Woojae reflected on how frugality came naturally to him at the time: he wasn't spending on food, didn't drink or smoke, and had very few friends to go out with anyway.

BIBI's story cut a little deeper. "I had no money, so I would go to the company just to eat," she said. "Whenever I went in, I tried to eat as much as I possibly could." She admitted that the habit caught up with her at least once: she got food poisoning after eating leftovers that had been sitting out.

What happened next is the part that has fans talking. Once Tiger JK, CEO of her label FEEL GHOOD MUSIC, and labelmate Tasha (known internationally as Yoon Mirae) realized what was going on, they started quietly intercepting the problem at the source. "From that point on, the boss and Tasha unnie would say, 'Eat everything and throw it all out. Don't leave anything. BIBI will pick it up,'" she recalled with a laugh. Tiger JK then began slipping her pocket money in small amounts, around 50,000 to 100,000 won at a time, so she could actually buy her own meals.

It's a small detail that says a lot about the environment BIBI was working in during those formative years. Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae are widely respected in the Korean music industry for the kind of mentorship they extend to their artists, and BIBI's story adds a personal, unglamorous footnote to that reputation. BIBI, who has since built a strong following through her genre-bending singles and an unmistakable stage presence, clearly had people in her corner long before the recognition caught up.