The Great Debate [Alfred]

[Sang Kyu Im]

The room was empty when he arrived there.

As a change of pace his sophomore year, Sang Kyu had decided to take debate. He needed an outlet for his often angry tendencies and figured verbal arguments would suffice. Previously he had tried sports, though he was not good enough at them to make any of the teams yet, which only aggravated his frustration. Arguing however, he felt was a strong point. Years of arguing with his brother and relatives had honed his debate skills. You got pretty good when you were trying to prove to your parents that you were more deserving of extra allowance or breaks from chores than your brother.

The debate room would have looked like any ordinary classroom if not for the way it was arranged. Unlike the rooms Sang Kyu had seen previously, there were no desks facing the front of the room. In fact, the few desks that were in the room had all been shoved off to the side. It didn’t appear that they’d be getting much use in this class. Instead, in the center of the room, were two long tables facing each other.

It being the first day of class and all, Sang Kyu wasn’t entirely sure where he was supposed to sit. There was a pile of papers and a cup of coffee on a teacher desk near the corner of the room, and though there was no one sitting at the desk at the moment, Sang Kyu had a feeling there was indeed someone in the room in this hour –they had simply stepped out of the room for a moment. Maybe he’d ask about where he was supposed to sit when they got back.

In the meantime, he simply went to the far end of one of the tables and set his stuff on it, though he didn’t sit down yet. After shuffling about restlessly for a moment, he took a seat. Maybe he was mistaken and there wasn’t a class here this period? Though he had left for class pretty early, so he felt that it was more likely that he was simply the first one here.

After a few minutes, some other students began filing in, so Sang Kyu finally sat down, sure he was in the right place now. The teacher returned with a stack of papers and began to pass them out, mentioning that they’d be paired off and would have to debate a certain side of an argument with a partner. Now ignoring the other students as they walked in, Sang Kyu confined himself to his mind and began reading over the prompt, hoping to be assigned to the side he wanted.

[Alfred Jones]

It was only his first day in this school in Switzerland, but Alfred had already made a couple of acquaintances and as he walked to his next class, he chatted and laughed along with his new buddies. Alfred had always been rather popular in school, but even he was surprised he was able to get along so well with the students in a brand new country to him. It was exciting really, and to make things better, it was rumored that his brother, whom he had never met in his life, was also attending this school. New country, new friends, and even a "new" brother? It was a new life for him.

Alfred and the other students whom he was chatting with were a little late in arriving to Debate. However, none of them seemed to care, even when the teacher warned them to not be later in the future. But because they were late, many of the seats were taken, so Al and his new pals had to split up for the time being. He picked the desk furthest away from the teacher's desk, yet closest to him in distance, which happened to be the desk near the middle of the first row. He sat down, smiling to the two students who were sitting beside him, and took a piece of paper that the teacher was handing out, which he hadn't bothered to look at. Now he had to sit through the introduction and instructions.

The American was growing rather bored during the introduction. Even if this was a different country, the rules weren't much different. He was half-asleep until he finally heard something interesting. It seemed the class was already receiving their first assignment - one that would require a partner who they would debate with. He looked down at his paper and realized that he already had the instructions and what-not. Apparently, the teacher had already assigned partners for the students, too. He stared at his partner's name on the paper. The name definitely didn't look Swiss -- or Germanic in any way. Instead, it was "Sang Kyu Im," something Asian. It didn't look Japanese to him -- maybe Chinese?

... Which, if the kid was Chinese, it would make this assignment rather ironic. Alfred and this Sang Kyu were to debate whether communism was a good idea or not -- and, Alfred made a displeased face, seeing how he was chosen to argue how communism was a good idea. He'd agree that it had a good concept, but he disagreed that it was a good idea because it would never work with humans, ever! He sighed, but he figured this was Debate class, and sometimes he'd have to fight for the side he didn't even agree with.

As the teacher instructed the students to find their partners, Alfred simply stayed seated. He had to reject a few people who thought he was someone else. As everyone was shuffling about, he looked for the student that looked like a Sang Kyu. He couldn't help but wonder what this guy would be like personality-wise. Hopefully funny, and outgoing, and a sports lover -- then they would get along without any problems.

[Sang Kyu Im]

Well, looking over this prompt now, it didn’t appear he’d gotten the side he would have wanted. It was an interesting topic: Is communism a good idea? Normally, he would have said, yes, it is a good idea. It was good to try and treat all people equally. It kept people from getting too rich and taking advantage of everyone else, which was a huge problem in today’s world.

He would probably be labeled a traitor back in Korea for saying so, which was why he kept him mouth shut. It looked like he wasn’t even going to get the chance to speak his own mind here either, because he’d been assigned to the capitalism side. There was some info on the bottom of the sheet about the positive aspects of capitalism, but he wasn’t as keen on reading it now. He didn’t feel right about arguing for something he didn’t really believe in.

While he was busy thinking about how half-hearted he’d be in an argument about this, everyone else was already pairing up with their partners. Sang Kyu ignored them for the most part. A few times, people came up to him to ask his name, and of course he kept getting the people trying vainly to pronounce anything that looked even vaguely Asian. Annoyed, he crossed his arms and waited until most of them had found their partners. It would make his job easier anyway.

Soon enough, there were only a few people left, so he hauled himself up from his seat with a sigh and went off to find the kid named ‘Alfred Jones,’ as had been written at the top of his paper. He asked a few different people but all denied being Alfred. Even more annoyed now, Sang Kyu wondered why he hadn’t just stayed in his seat and waited for this Alfred kid to come to him.

Then a kid with blond hair and glasses caught his eye. He kind of reminded Sang Kyu of a jock – one of those really popular kids who are super sociable and think they’re great for it, but when it comes down to it they’re not even remotely intelligent. Sang Kyu, who had never liked those sorts of people, decided almost immediately he wasn’t going to like this classmate of his. But the kid was looking around like he was looking for something real specific. Obviously he hadn’t found his partner yet. Having a little change of heart, Sang Kyu reasoned he might as well ask the guy if he was Alfred so he could say no and at least he would know who not to ask again. Who names their kid Alfred anyway? This guy looked too cool to put up with having a dumb name like Alfred, but it was worth asking.

The Korean shuffled over, wanting to get it over with. “You. Are you Alfred?”