Coach Brown whistled a small tune as he walked into his office on Monday morning.
"Morning Felicity" He said, wearing a brilliant grin.
"M—Morning Coach. You're in an awfully good mood today." She replied, feeling a little odd.
"Really? How could you tell?" He asked playfully, taking his seat behind his desk. Usually he was rather serious around the office, but it was quite hard to keep up appearances, especially after the team had so much success over the weekend.
Instead of answering, Felicity continued her cleaning of his office before promptly leaving. Coach Brown didn't seem to mind as he opened up his laptop and jovially checked the sports headlines.
"Columbia Bobcats sweep the Stetson Cappers in 3 straight games to begin their season strong."
The body of the article showcased Ken's broken bat home run in the first game as well as their great defense throughout the series. This only improved the coach's mood further.
Coach Brown opened up his emails and could see a few, including one from the Columbia board of trustees. His expression faltered briefly, but upon reading it, a wide grin appeared.
"Looks like those guys understand." He muttered with glee.
Knock Knock
"Hmm?"
"You asked for me coach?"
Coach Brown looked up to see Ken standing at his doorway. In his jovial mood he had forgotten that he indeed had asked him to see him in his office.
"Ken my boy, take a seat." He said with glee.
Ken felt a little weird, but he still did as he was told. The coach was rather chipper, so it didn't look like he was in trouble or anything. It turned out that he'd been dreading the meeting for nothing.
"How would you rate your performance in your opening games?"
'Eh? What kind of a question is that?' he thought.
"I think it was solid for my first games of college. Of course I've still got a lot to learn, so I'll be in your care." Ken responded carefully. He didn't want to seem too arrogant or too humble.
"Heh." Coach Brown grinned. "I'd say you had a stellar showing to start the season. Besides that home run, you only gave up 2 more hits in the 7 innings you pitched. I think that deserves some praise."
Ken nodded, not sure where the coach was going with all of this. He wasn't some kid who needed constant reassurance that he was playing well since he was a typically confident guy.
Seeing that Ken wasn't acting overly enthusiastic, the coach cleared his throat. "Well it's not just me who thinks you're doing well. We've been approached by a couple of magazines that want to interview you. Would you be interested?"
Ken raised his eyebrow. He wasn't expecting to get media attention this early into the season, especially since he'd only pitched in a single game.
"I don't see the harm in accepting." Ken replied, "What are the magazines?"
"Baseball America and a local one. You could probably skip the local magazine for now." Coach Brown stated. He didn't want his players focusing too much on media, especially since Ken was just a freshman.
Not only did players have to balance their athletics, they also needed to stay on top of their academics. Adding things like media on top of their already large schedule would be too much.
"Okay, I'll do that then."
"Excellent!" Coach Brown clapped his hands together, happy to get it out of the way. "Ah, by the way… The school board have asked for a favor…"
At this point, the coach seemed rather uncomfortable, causing Ken to feel wary.
"What is it?"
"Well you see…"
A few minutes later, Ken left with a perplexed expression. Out of all the things he'd thought might happen in the meeting, this was not what he expected.
It turned out that the school was rather aware of Ken's social media presence and wanted to capitalize on it. They were offering more budget to the baseball program as a leverage for some favor from Ken.
Apparently his following was more than 20 times that of the Columbia baseball page, something that he never would have expected.
But Ken knew better than to agree to any terms right away, especially since he held the power in this negotiation. Which was why he said that he needed to talk to his Social Media Manager first before agreeing.
After telling Coach Brown he had a media manager, the guy frowned. It wasn't until he explained that it was an unofficial title and that the girl was another student at Columbia that the coach relaxed.
He had almost forgotten the rules were rather strict before the NIL deal was introduced.
Like this, Ken returned to his dorm room only to see Steve still sleeping. He had decided to give the guy a day off since they had just come back from Florida and he had a meeting with the coach this morning.
Leaving the room, he went back out to the hallway and knocked on Tara's door.
The girl opened the door after a while, her hair all messed up as if she'd just been asleep.
"Hey, have you got some time this morning before classes?" Ken asked.
Tara didn't respond right away. She rubbed her eyes a few times before staring at him, for a little bit.
"Oh shi—"
SLAM
Ken's nose was only inches away from being smashed by the door which had flown shut in front of his face.
"S—Sorry I'll be out in a sec!" Tara responded, seeming flustered.
Ken scratched his head, feeling at a loss. This situation had reminded him of the time where he'd surprised Ai back in Japan. She had been wearing a green face mask back then and had also slammed the door in his face.
The memory caused Ken to let out a chuckle, his eyes dancing in amusement.
'Maybe I should call in advance whenever visiting a woman.' He mused inwardly.