Reason #2: Byun Baekhyun lets go too easily.

It's a new school year. 
As usual, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo are one of the first to arrive at school, decked in their casual clothes (as senior students are permitted to wear) and windswept, ruffled hair. There aren't much people at school yet, just a few emo-looking kids mooching in the corner of the playground and a couple of other early birds.
"Where do we have to go first again?" Kyungsoo asks, though he's already plucking his diary out of his schoolbag. Baekhyun beats him to it, though, already having memorised their schedules for the day.
"The auditorium." He whispers, and is glad that years with him has made Kyungsoo's hearing extraordinarily sharp, with the ability to snatch Baekhyun's shy whispers out of thin air.
"Okay, let's go." Kyungsoo mumbles the reply into his backpack, haphazardly tucking his diary back in with one hand. Nodding in reply, Baekhyun sets the way, only to let Kyungsoo take the lead when they arrive outside the auditorium. However, too fixated on the ground, Baekhyun fails to notice his surroundings - in particular, a lanky male with a bunch of basketballs in his hands, who is also not looking at where he's going.
Baekhyun falls to the ground with a harsh thud, his rear end taking most of the damage. His vision becomes blurry and he looks around frantically, pushing his glasses back up in the process.
"I'm sorry!" A cheerful (almost overenthusiastic) voice breaks in, and a big palm is offered to Baekhyun. Looking up, Baekhyun is considerably shocked to meet possibly the most handsome face he's seen in all his years of life (he hopes Kyungsoo's father doesn't take offence at lies). 
"Um…" the warm feeling surrounding his hand has Baekhyun too stunned to notice that he's being hauled up, with almost no effort by the other party. "No problem?" he offers when it's clear the other is waiting for him to talk, to say something, "but I'm really sorry for bumping into you." Baekhyun offers the deepest bow he can, what with his backpack and all.
"Ah, no, really. It's my fault." The husky voice replies, and Baekhyun blushes. That wide, crooked, and very handsome grin is very nostalgic, and he wonders why. 
Baekhyun racks his mind frantically. Maybe this is someone he knew before - he can't remember his orphanage days very clearly, but good, happier memories of being part of Kyungsoo's family have replaced them, so he's sure he recognises this very tall person from the orphanage. Baekhyun's thinking so hard he doesn't realise how awkward the whole situation is, until the sonorous voice rouses him from his thoughts.
"Oh, well. I'd better be going now. Bye, Mega-Boy!"
With that, the male rushes off, leaving Baekhyun standing in a daze, wondering why someone would call him Mega-Boy when he was obviously so small.
Hm. Well, whatever.
"You alright?" Kyungsoo rushes up, the picture of a worried mother, and Baekhyun returns a small smile that indicates he's still wandering in the depths of his mind.
"Yeah. Fine. Mhm." Baekhyun answers, adjusting his backpack straps, staring at the opposite direction, "we should be going."
The first classes of the years are boring, as usual, and Baekhyun barely manages to stifle a yawn as he dutifully jots notes down in his diary. He just wants to do something that will jog his brain, anything, even starting lessons a day early (they're seniors, why do they need briefing?), but the rest of the students are giggling and secretly texting under their tables. Nobody else seems as desperately bored as he is (except Kyungsoo, really), so he waves away all thoughts of asking the teacher to start explaining the syllabus and sits quietly.
The last lesson he has for the day is probably the most eventful one.
It's  a perfectly normal, mundane lesson before it actually starts, of course, because Baekhyun prides himself on always being punctual and responsible (it's one of the only things he does pride himself on being). Kyungsoo has another class for last period, and Baekhyun mentally pouts. Now who will be willing to be his partner? No one.
The bell rings, signalling the end of lunchtime, and a line of students file in, taking their respective seats, everywhere except beside Baekhyun.
Baekhyun himself sighs. It's not like he hadn't expected this. He twiddles and fidgets with the pen in his hand, allowing himself to take a short break as he stares out the window. It's a cool autumn day, the shaded bronze leaves beginning to fall, and Baekhyun wants nothing more than to rush out and breathe in the cool air and hopefully huddle inside his room.
He thumps his face onto the desk. School .
"Um…is this seat taken?" 
Baekhyun sits up straight with a jolt. That voice.
He turns his head to the side, cheeks already blushing a furious pink when he notices the tall, lanky male from earlier standing there, that very handsome smile still plastered on his face.
"Oh, Mega-Boy!" He says not-so-quietly when he sees Baekhyun, his grin splitting till it reaches one side of his face to the other.
"Hi…?" Baekhyun answers, lifting a hand to wave awkwardly. The whole class is quiet and Baekhyun thinks it's the first time in his life he's been able to capture a crowd's attention for more than one second. 
"Hey, I'm Chanyeol!" is the enthusiastic reply, and a large, warm looking palm is offered to Baekhyun once again, "and hopefully, you'll let me be your seat partner?" 
Baekhyun stares blankly at the hand for a while. Chanyeol. Where had he heard that name? However, he quickly remembered his situation, before tentatively slotting his hand with Chanyeol's and bobbing them up and down robotically. He waits for Chanyeol to take the seat beside him, but is met with no reaction.
"So, seat partners?" Chanyeol asks, fiddling his thumbs.
"Um. Yeah. Okay."
Chanyeol.
The taller male's name echoes in his head even as class ends and he walks home by himself. Kyungsoo has choice practice today, but Baekhyun's asked for time off because he really doesn't feel up to singing today.
Chanyeol.
Seriously, where had he heard that name before? His adopted parents peer at him nervously over dinner, but Baekhyun holds both palms out and reassures them he's fine. He holds up a steady conversation with them about school, and thus manages to avoid answering just what exactly he'd been thinking about when he'd almost eaten his spaghetti with a knife.
Chanyeol.
It hits him when he's lying down in bed at night. The orphanage. That was where he knew Chanyeol from. He'd been friends, almost best friends (Baekhyun doesn't dare put that label on anyone too easily), before Chanyeol had been adopted.
The couple who'd visited the orphanage had wanted a happy, bright child, talkative and inquisitive. Baekhyun fit only one of the requirements, but Chanyeol ticked every mark on their list. Maybe Baekhyun could've pretended to be happy, to be bright, to be talkative, but before he could talk to the nice, friendly-looking couple, they'd decided on Chanyeol, who'd bounded up to them the minute they arrived.
Baekhyun let Chanyeol go, the only friend he had, let him go so easily it scares himself. He could've tried, Baekhyun knows, he could've changed their minds, but he chose not to. 
Baekhyun cries himself to sleep as waves of loneliness wash over him, remembering the chubby, thick arms that once hugged him to sleep and wishing the now thinner, but warmer arms could do the same. 
This time, he decides, this time he'll keep Chanyeol beside him (not really, just in the seat beside him in the last period on Monday), and maybe, it'll be easier for him not to let go. He hopes so.

Reason #3: Byun Baekhyun is really really shy.

"I can't believe it." Kyungsoo thunks himself face-first onto the library table, and Baekhyun winces.
"Can't believe what?" Baekhyun asks, though he does pull Kyungsoo up gently to access the damage. None done.
"It's the first week of school, and we've already got a presentation in English. Argh!"  Kyungsoo groans into the pile of books. Baekhyun peers at the titles. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hamlet. Shakespeare. He silently sympathises with Kyungsoo.
"We can get someone else to help us with the presentation, because whatever, and the person gets to skip their class, provided they get permission, and a whole lot of crap like that. But how am I ever going to find a person like that?" Baekhyun keeps quiet, but Kyungsoo still turns to him with that imaginary lightbulb above his head anyways.
"Aha! Baekhyun!"
"Yes!" Baekhyun almost jumps out of his seat in shock, but manages to remain frozen. 
"You're really good at dramatic reading, right? Right?"
"No…" Baekhyun mumbles, cheeks turning red. Kyungsoo continues on.
"Don't say that, I heard your reading at home. In your room. In solitude. Well, you thought it was, anyways. So c'mon! He'll probably put in a good word with your English teacher?"
If there's one thing Baekhyun can't resist, it's an opportunity to raise his grades (the life of a nerd wow).
"Alright," he agrees grudgingly, "but if you mess it up, it's not my fault, and if I mess it up, it's not my fault either." 
Kyungsoo is silent for a moment, then nods. He fishes in his bag before pulling out a three-page long script and handing it to Baekhyun with a saccharine smile.
"You prepared this." Baekhyun narrows his eyes, and Kyungsoo shrugs.
"Well, you were going to do it anyway, so yeah." 
Baekhyun grumbles into the bleached white paper because he can't really say no to Kyungsoo (the other male is too manipulative).
What Kyungsoo didn't tell him, though, is that Chanyeol is in his English class.
"I didn't think that'd have to do with anything," the wide-eyed male shrugs, "what does it matter to you anyways?" 
Baekhyun splutters out some incoherent trash but doesn't give an explanation. Kyungsoo gives him a pointed look before sighing and letting the matter go.
"Just don't mess up my presentation. Please." 
Baekhyun clearly remembers when he's supposed to start reading. Kyungsoo's going to give a bit of background on Shakespeare, then Baekhyun's supposed to do a bit of dramatic reading. Kyungsoo will explain that, then Baekhyun will be cued to do some more dramatic reading. Baekhyun thinks he's got it in the bag until he walks to the front in a quiet classroom with about ten pairs of eyes staring curiously at him.
His eyes dart to Chanyeol, who's sitting at the near front by himself (unconsciously, really), and he takes a deep breath. Baekhyun's hands are ice cold and he can almost hear his own teeth chattering, like a constant buzzing in a silent room.
"Um." What was he supposed to do again? When was he supposed to do the dramatic reading? Baekhyun can hear Kyungsoo talking beside him already, and pushes his hair back nervously, quickly scanning the paper to check which part Kyungsoo is on. Next sentence? Does he start at the next sentence?
Is Baekhyun supposed to do the part about Shakespeare's background? He himself isn't sure even as he opens his mouth, interuppting Kyungsoo's montone explanation about the start of Shakespeare's life. His voice trembles upon the first few words, and he stares towards all the students, at their foreboding faces, and wonders why he even agreed to this. However his eyes come to rest upon Chanyeol, who gives him that characteristic wide smile and a thumbs up, and so Baekhyun regains his confidence, until he's swooping and walking all around the room, waving his hands for emphasis on certain parts of it. 
Baekhyun waves towards Kyungsoo as the paragraph ends, signalling for the other male to talk. However, when he checks the script properly, looks carefully at the names beside the paragraphs, he spots Kyungsoo's name next to the paragraph he'd just read, and his own name next to the paragraph Kyungsoo is reading extremely hesitantly.
The script is a conversation between two people, a fight, so Baekhyun joins in the first time the protagonist begins to talk. Kyungsoo gives a silent yelp at that, glaring at Baekhyun before looking at the script in his own hand and realising that this may actually work. 
Working together, somehow, they manage to breeze through the presentation, leaving their temporary stage with a round of applause.
Kyungsoo confronts him after their class.
"You said you didn't do presenting! You almost failed the presentation last year! You were lucky there was a written test!" Baekhyun shrugs, shrinking into himself. Is Kyungsoo mad?
"Good job." Kyungsoo is smiling now, "I told you you could do it, and yet every time you go up in front of everyone, you get all nervous and stuff when you're actually really good at public presentations!" Kyungsoo leans forward, "What changed?"
"Erm…" Baekhyun is about to reply with "nothing" when the door bursts open and both males outside jump back. It's three minutes into lunch and everyone should be out of the classrooms by now.
"Oh, hey Kyungsoo! Mega-Boy!" Baekhyun is confused as to why Chanyeol is still calling him by that nickname when he realises he's never told Chanyeol his name.
"Baekhyun." he says, pointing to himself, "I'm Baekhyun."
Chanyeol frowns, as if considering something, before shaking his head.
"I like Mega-Boy better, though. Good work on that presentation! I've gotta go, bye!" Chanyeol leaves quickly, and the telltale smirk on Kyungsoo's face is probably caused by the heated blush on Baekhyun's cheeks.
"So…crush or infatuation or true love?" Kyungsoo emphases the last words with a mocking dreamy look in his eyes.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Baekhyun squeaks before running down the hall.
"Oh, trust me, it's something." It's something if he can get you to climb out of your shell, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo thinks. Maybe this year Baekhyun's nerves will fare better.
"Get back here you nymph!" Or maybe not.

author's note:

i am not making any sense.

i'm sorry. school is killing me even during break.

argh. bye guys.