Baekhyun didn't join EXO until 11 months before debut

Chanyeol trained for 4 years under SM

They both went to the same high school.

-

One could deduce many things from these 3 statements - that Chanyeol was most likely very popular throughout his high school years, that Chanyeol and Baekhyun probably knew each other.

But what those 3 statements don't tell you is that Baekhyun hid his money in his socks so that it didn't get stolen, and had a spare change of clothes and shoes in his locker for those times he was thrown into the dumpster

And that Chanyeol was actually a midget in high school, popular because he was not only such a cutie our Chanyeolie, he was very strong - an alpha male.

And that Baekhyun ate lunch in a toilet cubicles so that he wouldn't feel lonely about sitting on his own at the lunch table.

And that Chanyeol and Baekhyun had pretty much all the same classes together, but while Chanyeol sat in the back with his group of loud friends, Baekhyun sat quietly at the front, pushing his glasses up his nose to see the board.

-

One day after school, Baekhyun had hit and broken his ankle onto something while being thrown into the bumpster  and waited for 5 minutes inside for the pain to somewhat subside before ungracefully falling out, wincing heavily and grabbing his ankle

"Are you okay?" Baekhyun saw a hand offered to him and notices an outstretched hand. Following the milky skin upwards, he sees their school jumper, and then a neck, and on top, a face with two large round eyes under a black fringe. Park Chanyeol.

Baekhyun tries to pull himself up, before collapsing. Wordlessly, Chanyeol helped him up, wrapping his own arm around the other's waistand slinging the other's arm around his own shoulders. With 3 legs, the two boys limp their way to the nearest changeroom.

Chanyeol places Baekhyun down to sit on the bench and rushes out, returning with his own PE clothes and shoe for Baekhyun's uninjured foot before waiting outside the door for the older to change. When Baekhyun returns, bag slung across his back, tugging at the short hemlilne of Chanyeol's clothes, Chanyeol bends down in front of him and tells him to get on his back.

Baekhyun is dubious at first - this is the same boy whose shoe was so small, he had to loosen his shoelaces  by a lot to get his foot in. And Baekhyun didn't exactly have large feet.

But Chanyeol insists, and soon Baekhyun finds himself being piggybacked home by the smaller boy, neither of whom have spoken until this day.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you. What was your name again?"

"Baekhyun. Byun Baekhyun."

"Ahh I see. My name's Park Chanyeol." He offers one of his noona-melting wide grins.

"I know" Baekhyun wryly remarks.

Chanyeol drops Baekhyun off at his doorstep, telling him to promise to look after himself before waving goodbye.

-

"BAEKHYUN! BAEKHYUN WAIT UP!" 

Baekhyun stops himself and turns around on his crutches to see who is yelling his name. Chanyeol comes into view, holding a finger up while bending over to catch his breath.

"What's up?"

Chanyeol straightens and tugs Baekhyun's backpack off his back, slinging both Baekhyun's and his own bag over his back. 

"Come on, let's go to class. I'll carry your stuff until you get better."

Inwardly, Baekhyun smiles (and is a tad grateful for his broken ankle).

And true to his word, Chanyeol carried every single one of his bags and textbooks until the end of the term.

-

Often they would eat lunch together and talk to each other about random things.

"Why are you looking after me all of a sudden?"

"Is something wrong with that?"

"No, just wondering...because we've never really talked before this."

"I dunno. I feel bad for your injury and want to help out?"

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow.

"I want us to be friends?"

Baekhyun raises the other.

"You have really nice food and I want to steal some?"

Baekhyun cracks a grin and Chanyeol playfully steals a spoonful of his lunch.

-

They stepped into English class once

"Channie! Come sit with us here! We can play games on our phones while the teacher isn't looking!" A group of Chanyeol's fangirls waved excitedly in the back.

Chanyeol gave them an uneasy smile. 

"Maybe next time, I wanna sit up here today."

Confused, they sat back down and started to whisper animatedly at each other as he sat down in one of the front row desks with Baekhyun, helping the older sit down and lean his crutches on the edge of the table. 

Soon after class had started, Chanyeol felt a wad of paper hit the back of his head. Checking to see the teacher wasn't looking, he turned around and picked up the paper to unfurl.

"Channie why are you sitting up there away from us? You see that loser next to you? With the crutches? We did that about a week ago, because the first years were on an excursion and we had no-one to bully. Also we're going to the arcade after school. Wanna come?"

Chanyeol scrunches up the sheet of paper, knuckles white against his skin. Gritting his teeth, he turns around, trying to erase the rage in his features and smile and shake his head at them in response to their question. 

When the bell rings, Chanyeol hurriedly packs both his and Baekhyun's items before throwing an arm around the older and rushing them out of the classroom, to the confusion of his 'old' friends.

-

Unbeknownst to Chanyeol, Baekhyun loved singing. This, he kept within the confines of the shower cubicle in the bathroom of his home, and even then, he only sang in the shower before his parents came back from work. But one day in the holidays, he plucked up the courage to go to the SM open audition - and makes it in! He decides, after some consultation with his parents, that he will attend training classes like all the other trainees, but will stop once it affects his grades. 

So on the first day of Baekhyun's trainee sessions, he wakes up an hour early to pick the perfect outfit - one that looked like it had been effortlessly put together, but looked good enough to make Baekhyun look cool. 

Nervously, he takes the side entrance with all of the new trainees, is given a debriefing, and heads off to his first dance lessons. There are already trainees inside stretching casually, glancing over to gage some first impressions of the newcomers. Baekhyun looks around to find an empty square metre to stretch, when he spots-

"CHANYEOL!" The shorter of the two turns around shocked, spots the person who calls him, and breaks into the widest grin, running over to say hi.

"BAEK!" he squeaked out, hugging the taller one. "Are you one of the new trainees?"

"Yep!" Baekhyun nodded, and Chanyeol dragged him over to his friends, proudly introducing him. "This is Baekhyun, my friend from school" Chanyeol stated, chest puffed out proudly. His friends, who had been trainees for about as long as Chanyeol (give or take a year or two) smiled and nodded and introduced themselves, a complete flipside of the intimidating first impressions they gave. 

There was Jongin, who was best friends with Taemin from SHINee, who had then just come out with Ring Ding Dong. There was Joonmyun who both smiled and sang like an angel. There was Sehun, a little (and pretty darn adorable) guy who had all the SM noonas wrapped around his little finger. And there was Kevin, this massive tower of a person who hailed from Canada, knew English and Chinese and was still learning Korean,