Kim Yongsun has many nicknames.

Solar. Yongkong. Squirtle. Yongdunnie. Yeba. MCDuk. But also: The Battery. The Energizer Bunny.

That’s because Kim Yongsun never, ever slacks off. Always positive, always hardworking to the max, she always encourages herself and her members to give more, more, more.

She is known for her anti-laziness agenda. Lazy people have no future, she once declared in an interview. That’s not just a principle for her – she embodies it every moment of every day.

Yongsun is no superhuman. Most days, she simply is so pumped, so hyper, that she just doesn’t recognize her own tiredness as it creeps up on her. She has pushed herself to ignore her own signs of weariness for so long, that now, more often than not, she doesn’t even notice those signs as they show up.

However, someone else does notice.

Byulyi.

Over the years they spent together, personally and professionally, Byulyi has accepted it as her own mission to act as Yongsun’s external regulator. To make sure her girlfriend doesn’t push herself past the point of no return. The leader can’t even be trusted to acknowledge her own fatigue when someone else points it out to her. She is just like a kid who is having too much fun and wants to keep playing at all costs even if it’s long past bedtime, Byulyi thinks affectionately.

Yongsun will never, ever admit when she’s exhausted. So Byulyi finds ways around it.

On especially hard days, particularly when they’ve had an early start, Byulyi knows that, around 6pm, Yongsun can get a bit abrasive. She’ll have a hint of sarcasm in her voice when she talks to Byulyi, be slightly irritable with Wheein, a bit harsher than she needs to be when she corrects Hyejin. Byulyi is on the lookout for this to happen, and, as soon as she notices, she’s ready to announce that they all need a break. Of course, the leader will attempt to keep working while the others rest, but Byulyi is ready for this too and annoys Yongsun with her antics until the she can’t help but laugh and goof off as well.

When they practice a hard choreography for hours on end, Byulyi glances periodically at Yongsun in the mirror. Sometimes, she perceives her girlfriend’s reflexes being ever so slightly slower than usual as she dances. It doesn’t really impact on the success of the practice, but Byulyi knows what it means - so she stops dancing to go get a piece of fruit, “for herself”. Byulyi ends up eating one or two apple slices, and feeds the rest to Yongsun.

But the deadliest giveaway of all, meaning Yongsun is at the point of total exhaustion, is when she absentmindedly starts rubbing her left ear. Byulyi doesn’t see it very often, but when it does happen, she knows it’s time to act. She’ll unceremoniously pull Yongsun on the couch, lie on top of her and outright refuse to move. She’ll just ignore the leader’s weak protests, and stay silent herself until Yongsun’s eyes start fluttering. And then, they’ll both have a nap.

Byulyi finds a thousands more different ways to make sure Yongsun’s batteries never give out. She does what she needs to do to keep her girlfriend’s energy levels stable through their taxing days.

She makes sure Yongsun doesn’t have too much caffeine early in the morning, to avoid a crash later on.

She installs a white noise machine in their bedroom, and buys a wake-up light alarm clock.

She talks their manager into spacing their schedules out as much as possible.

She checks that her girlfriend has enough time to eat or even to go to the toilet between such schedules, so that she’s not hungry or uncomfortable on their next one.

On stage, she silently waits while Yongsun talks to MooMoos , ready to handle her a water bottle so that she can make full use of the next three short seconds to hydrate.

Byulyi doesn’t know if Yongsun is aware of any of this. She does what she does discreetly, almost stealthily. Most often, she pretends that she’s the one whose needs get met by her own actions. Yongsun is simply too headstrong, and this way of going about it makes both of their lives easier.

However, every once in a while, Yongsun interrupts what she’s doing on her own accord.

She walks over to Byulyi, and holds her so tight that the rapper almost can’t breathe.

She whispers a muffled “thank you” in her ear.

Byulyi asks why she’s being thanked.

“You know why,” is always her girlfriend’s reply.

To everyone’s eyes, Kim Yongsun is like an over-energized Energizer bunny.

We don’t know how she does it, people will say. They don’t know that, for every full battery in the world, somewhere, there’s a charger.