EXID's Hyelin Clears 40 Million Won a Month at Her Taco Shop, Jeonghwa Pours Coffee

EXID's Jeonghwa is a full-time barista, four weeks in, and customers keep asking if it's a pop-up. It isn't. She was hired as a regular employee, and her bandmate Hyelin is already running a taco shop that she says grosses about 140 million won a month.

The Jeonghwa news surfaced on the 10th, when a cafe-focused influencer posted a video on social media. The influencer wrote that they had stopped by for coffee and run into Jeonghwa, adding that they had loved EXID since childhood and "came back a fan who got to meet their idol." The clip shows Jeonghwa chatting with the customer behind the counter.

Jeonghwa said several customers recognized her. "Everyone asked if it was a pop-up, or if I was just working here for a short stretch," she said. It's neither. "I joined as a regular employee and work as a barista," she explained. She said she is still acting and doing music, but "wanted to learn coffee more deeply."

Hyelin's taco shop, by the numbers

Hyelin's side of this came to light in August, when she appeared on the YouTube channel Human Story and showed off her taco restaurant in Seoul's Anguk-dong. She greets customers and helps prepare food herself.

The figures got attention. Monthly sales average around 140 million won, and after rent, labor and other costs, roughly 40 million won remains, by her account.

Her reasons were blunt. "Broadcasting has seasons. It's not a job you can do just because you want to," she said, describing anxiety over irregular work and income. Plans to work in China were derailed by the THAAD dispute, and plans in Japan by COVID-19. "All the chances to earn money flew away. I didn't earn as much as people think," she said.

From idle days to a restaurant

The slow stretch hit her hard. "I had no reason to get up," Hyelin recalled, saying she sometimes didn't wake until 3 or 4 p.m. She took a restaurant part-time job to change her routine, and that experience led her toward running her own place. The work, she said, gave her confidence that she can do more than dance and sing.

She also stressed that she hasn't quit performing. Hyelin says she is juggling EXID activities, DJ gigs and musicals alongside the business.

Both members debuted in 2012 and rode EXID's peak after "Up & Down" climbed charts in 2014 in one of K-pop's best-known reverse-chart runs. Now they are building second careers, and neither is framing it as an exit. Whether the group's fans read that as reassurance or a quiet sign of how unforgiving idol income can be probably depends on the fan.