It's Christmas and my favourite cousin Aeyoung could no longer bear to watch me spend another lonely holiday season. Despite my protests, my older cousin dragged me to her college Christmas party, hoping that I would find someone special that very night. Unsurprisingly, while she was hanging out with her friends, I found myself increasingly bored by this party filled with college kids, all older than high school senior me. Though I felt horrible about it, I decided to ditch Aeyoung and sneak out of the party. As I was moving around the food table and Christmas tree inconspicuously, a couple ran pass and knocked heavily into me.

In the corner of my eye, the fairylights and illuminated decorations of the Christmas tree flashed past me, and I knew immediately I had to avoid the centrepiece of the party at all costs. I was not about to drag this tree down and bring everyones attention to myself. Hence, though risking a badly twisted ankle, I spun hard in the midst of my fall only to narrowly avoid the huge tree in the middle of the hall. I grinned momentarily, knowing that I had just saved myself from being embarrassed from countless Snapchats and Instastories of the evening. 

Oh how wrong I was. 

While the tree stood tall and proud, unscathed and unaffected by the huge motion that I had just pulled off, I felt my shoulder crash into something hard. An array of flavoured liquids rained on me, along with flying fruit tarts descending on my face, and lastly a huge bowl of pudding covered my face as I fell straight into the long table of food next to the Christmas tree. The trays of food rang loudly with clings and clangs, and as I tried to stand up, my arms slipped on what felt like potato mesh, causing me to have a second fall into the the table, and the crash reverberated throughout the hall. The DJ chose this moment to stop the music, and announce loudly into the mic, "Is the girl at the food table alright?" Somewhere faraway (presumably on the dance floor), I could hear my cousin gasp loudly. 

I lay there, motionless, ready to give up on salvaging this moment. In no way, could this get any better or worse. 

I let the large bowl of pudding sink further over my head, hoping naively that it could consume me instead. The whispers were getting loud, yet nobody reached out or said anything. Then, I heard a hasty footsteps approaching. 

"Hey Aeyo-"

It wasn't Aeyoung, but whoever it was had removed the bowl of pudding from my head and draped what large piece of cloth over my head. 

"Are you able to stand up?" The stranger said in a low and deep voice as he lent me his arm to finally stand up from the wrecked table. 

I grabbed the cloth around my head and wrapped it tightly around my head. The stranger placed an arm around my shoulder, and from what I see as I peeped through the small opening of my makeshift headscarf, he was trying to disperse the crowd. Phones were up everywhere, and the kind stranger seemed determined to use his hand to block each camera while pushing my head slightly lower. 

"Walk closer to me, I'll bring you to the kitchen to clear the stuff off your clothes."

Depsite his behaviour, I could not quite place the tone of the stranger. It sounded as if he was torn between suppressing a restrained anger and the surfacing concern. Somewhere in the crowd I could hear my cousin shouting to get my attention, but I was not going to risk going into the crowd and showing my face. So I followed this boy, whoever he was, to the cafeteria's kitchen. I finally removed the cloth from my head when I sensed that nobody was around besides him, and only then did I realised it was an apron. 

I looked up to see a neatly dressed young man, perhaps not much older than myself, clad in chef's attire. He looked at me with large round eyes, scanning my pudding-smeared hair and punch-drenched sweater, asa if to assess the extent of the damage. 

"You can wash your hair in the sink over there.  Try to get the pudding crumps out of your hair. As for your sweater...I don't think we can do much about it. I'll get you a spare set of uniform to change. You shouldn't go out on a winter night in wet clothes. Give me a few minutes."

As I was washing my hair alone in the kitchen, a few things struck me. 

Firstly, pudding is really hard to wash off hair. 

Secondly, this guy talked like he was giving orders. Regardless of how warm and gentle he was when he helped me, his directions had been largely matter-of-fact, almost devoid of a clear emotion I could pinpoint. 

Thirdly, and also the worst epiphany that hit me that night, was that he was probably the chef in-charge of tonight's spread of buffet. In another words, the man whose work I just ruined tonight had helped me through my ordeal. My heart skipped a bit, afraid of facing the music once he returned with the uniform for me. 

"Hey."

His low voice next to me shocked me, and I turned around so rapidly in the midst of washing my hair that I unwittedly splashed water into his face. 

He looked displeased, but nonetheless handed me the uniform before pointing towards the exit. 

In the days to come, I would know more about this guy, and why it wasn't the best idea to annoy him on that fateful Christmas day. 

----

Do Kyungsoo was a Year 2 Film major who was famous for working part-time at the school cafeteria. After returning home from the party that night, my older cousin had pestered me incessantly about what happened with Kyungsoo, because it seemed that he was a much feared and revered character on campus. 

When their college cafeteria was in danger of closing down the year before, Kyungsoo had apparently led a film project to make a docuseries about the lives of the chefs working in the cafeteria. The project went viral on social media, and with the school's decision to finally open up the campus cafeteria for the public as well, business turned around miraculously over the course of three months. What was more incredible, as Aeyoung recounted, was that Kyungsoo decided to join the chefs after his film project. Since then, he had been a part-time kitchen staff, working on various cuisines that were very popular among the students of the school. 

And, much to my horror, she told me this was his first major project as a cafeteria staff. Everyone had looked forward to the food because it was Kyungsoo's first time overseeing the food catering. 

That definitely explained why he seemed so upset with me even after I thanked him profusely in the kitchen. Kyungsoo had merely dismissed me after taking down my number, so that I could return his spare uniform after I washed it. 

It didn't help either that I found out there was supposed to be a charity event associated with dinner. 

"If people found the food delicious and uploaded a picture of the food on Instagram with the hashtag #XXXCollegeFoodie, the school would donate an extra amount on top of the Christmas charity event. Kyungsoo fought quite hard for this opportunity, and there was a petition and everything. The school set a target of 300 people, but I think we're short now. It's alright though, the Dance King and Queen donated their prizes."

That did not make me feel better at all. 

I walked with trepidation towards Aeyoung's college, Kyungsoo's uniform in my school bag. 

I had deliberated for almost a week about how to apologise to him. This event seemed to have meant a lot to him, and I had ruined it due to a clumsy fall. Grasping the hem of my school uniform, I walked towards the college cafeteria. 

I was glad that I picked a non-peak hour to visit, because entering the school cafeteria in my high school uniform was attracting the attention of quite a few people. The crowd was sparse in the post-lunch hours, and when I reached the kitchen door, I knocked with the hope that there wouldn't be anyone else but him, so that my apology could be easier.