The next day after practice, Ken arrived back at his dorm and placed his bags down. It was getting a bit colder since it was now Autumn, but that didn't stop him from sweating profusely.
"Shower…"
Ken hated smelling bad, something he'd picked up since regressing. For some reason, his teenage body odor had been far worse than he remembered, causing him to have a complex.
As he opened the door to the bathroom, still kitted out in his Columbia baseball uniform, the other door opened.
"Oh hey, you're here. You ready to set up your Social Media account?" It was Tara. She had her hair tied up in a practical bun and wore make up, likely because she had just finished with the cheer team.
After yet another jump scare, Ken was beginning to think he might die of a heart attack if this persisted.
"Yeah, I just need to shower first." He replied, trying to calm down his racing heart.
"No no, we need some photos for your profile. Come on through." She said, opening the door wide as if to usher him inside.
Ken shook his head. "I stink and I need to shower. Can't you just use the photos on the University website?"
Tara's face fell in the next moment, as if she thought of something disgusting. "I already looked at those photo's… Let me just say that they should not see the light of day."
Hearing this, Ken didn't know whether to feel offended or not. Just as he was about to refuse once more, Tara moved forward and grabbed his arm, pulling him into her room.
"Hurry up, the smell of sweat isn't something that I'm unaccustomed to." She stated.
Ken was easily strong enough to resist her pull, but he decided to give up thinking that Tara might change her mind when she actually smelled him.
Upon entering her room, the layout was similar to his own, but it was completely different. While his was sparsely decorated, Tara's room was colorful and smelled like lavender.
In the corner of the room, there was a light atop a stand with a white backdrop. It looked like she had set it up in order to take some professional photographs. This theory was backed up when he saw the expensive looking camera sitting on her desk.
"What's all this?" He asked, feeling incredulous.
"It's for a photo shoot obviously." She stated as if he was dumb.
"Well, I can see that… I mean, weren't we just setting up a Social Media account?"
Tara massaged her temples, clearly getting frustrated with his lack of knowledge in the subject. Ken thought that she was about to lose her temper, but she took a deep breath in and out.
"Okay let's try a new approach." She said, clapping her hands together once. "You know nothing about Social Media, whereas I am not only studying digital marketing, but I also have quite a following online."
Ken nodded, it seemed like a fair assessment.
"So, all you need to do is listen to what I say. If I'm going to be your Social Media Manager in the future, we need to be on the same page." She said matter-of-factly.
"Huh? Social Media Manager?" Since when had he asked her for this?
"Yup. Now go stand in front of the backdrop, we need a decent profile pic to start with. As for posts, I've already found some decent clips on your Perfect Game profile to use." Tara stated, all but pushing him towards the photo area.
Ken had no choice but to comply, but inwardly he was wondering what he'd gotten himself into. Not to mention he had to participate in his least favorite activity—taking photo's.
However, he was rather surprised when Tara didn't ask him to smile. In fact, she just spoke to him normally, merely dictating what poses he should be making every now and then.
A few of the poses left him feeling awkward, but the woman's professionalism made it not as unbearable as he had thought.
After around 20 minutes, she gave the nod of approval.
"Alright, go into your phone and download Instagram, Facebook and Twitter from the app store. Have a think about what you want your handle to be while I pick out a good photo and touch it up."
"O—Okay…"
Since Ken had only ever used LINE back in Japan, he had never heard of Instagram or Twitter before. Facebook was popular back home, but only for the old people.
He did as he was told, quickly downloading all of the apps. He wasn't sure what a handle was, but he also didn't want to interrupt Tara who was expertly moving and clicking her mouse in front of her laptop.
After a few minutes she let out a sound of triumph and turned around, "Alright, what handle did you come up with?"
"I'm sorry… I don't know what a handle is." Ken replied lamely.
Tara pinched the bridge of her nose briefly before letting out a sigh, "You're right, it's my fault for expecting you to know such a thing. It's basically a username, so it needs to be cool, but also easy enough for people to search for you."
"I see… Can't I just use my name?"
Tara shook her head, "Unless you have the most unique name in the world, someone probably has already used it. Apart from facebook, Twitter and Instagram require a unique handle."
"Okay… How about KenTakagiPitcher" He suggested.
"Alright, that's my fault once again… How about we brainstorm together." She said, trying to keep her composure.
She grabbed his phone and opened up Instagram and went through the prompts to create a new account. When it came time to choose the handle, she paused, thinking deeply.
"Is there any cool terminologies in baseball for a pitcher?"
"Umm, the best pitcher on the team is usually called an Ace." Ken replied.
"Oh, that might actually work." She said, typing into his phone.
"AceTakagi. What do you think?"