With Ai now graduated College, she had plenty of time up her sleeves. Ken encouraged her to go sightseeing with her parents while they were in the states.
Although they were in the off-season, Ken was not completely free. In fact, on this day he made his way to Yank stadium to meet with some people.
Upon trying to enter the stadium, he was stopped by a few of the security guards who looked to be on high alert.
"The stadium is restricted to the public." One of them said, holding out a hand in front of Ken. The man was around the same height as him, but with much larger shoulders.
Ken didn't take any offense, "Sorry, I have an appointment with Sharon, the marketing director for Nikey."
The man raised his eyebrow in response, "Your name?"
"Ken Takagi."
After hearing his name, he motioned for Ken to wait for a moment and walked off, saying some words into his ear piece.
Ken waited around for a little while, feeling a bit awkward. A few minutes later, the man returned, "Thank you for your patience Mr. Takagi, please follow me."
His tone was much more respectful, so Ken simply nodded and followed him. Ken wasn't so vain to think that everyone would know him, but he thought that the security for the event he was attending would at least know his name.
"Ken! It's good to see you again." A voice called out, grabbing his attention.
The woman who spoke up was Sharon Blake, the marketing director for Nikey. They had met a few times during his endorsement talks once the NIL deal had been struck, but Tara had been alongside him back then.
She was in her mid-to-late 40's yet her face still held a natural beauty apart from some laugh lines. Yet, this only added to her charm.
Ken smiled, "Pleasure to see you as always, Sharon."
"Oh stop it, you'll make this old girl blush." She replied with a wink. "Thanks for coming so early, we've got a lot to shoot today and our director is rather eccentric. If he doesn't get the shot he wants, we might be here for a few days."
"It shouldn't take that long to do photos right?" Ken asked incredulously.
"Photos? Honey, this is a commercial. We sent the agreement over to your agent, didn't they tell you?" Sharon said in confusion.
"Oh… No problem, it must have been a miscommunication on our end." Ken stated, yet inwardly he was sighing. This was the first proper commercial he'd be doing, so he was a little nervous.
"Head over to the home locker room and get yourself changed. The hair and makeup girls will sort you out after that." Sharon directed, shooing him away.
Ken knew how to take a hint, so he did as he was told and headed to the locker room.
"Ah, your co-stars should be in there already." Sharon shouted behind him.
'Co-stars?' Ken questioned. He was curious as to who it might be, but inwardly he was relieved. As long as he wasn't the star of the show, there would be far less pressure.
Upon walked into the locker room through the home dugout, Ken was met with chaos. People were running around everywhere frantically, as if he'd just stepped into an ants nest.
His eyes moved to the two figures sitting on chairs getting worked on, but before he could see their identities, he was whisked away.
"Ken, hurry up and get changed. We need you in the makeup chair as soon as possible." A woman he did not know urged, pushing him into the changing room.
With the door closed behind him, Ken saw brand new Nikey gear hanging up. The shirt was black and long-sleeved and the pants were the usual white baseball one's he wore.
But what was most exciting was the Nikey cleats. They were a sleek black and white, matching with his outfit. Ken had never seen them before, so they looked to be a new product.
He quickly got changed after hearing a knock on the changing room.
When he emerged, he was basically dragged towards the makeup chair and forced into it. He turned, and was surprised to see a familiar face.
"Steve!?"
"Hey man, took your time getting here." He said, flashing him a grin. However, the makeup artist grabbed the guy by the chin and forced his head straight.
The situation caused Ken to chuckle in amusement, but he was soon subjected to the same treatment as they began to cake foundation onto his face.
It made sense why Steve was here. The guy was also signed by Nikey and they had the same agent, Tara. But Ken did not get to see the other guy in the next chair over. He had curly brown hair that looked like an afro.
After drawing a blank, Ken decided not to think about it any longer. Judging by the fact both he and Steve were here, Nikey were likely using rookies for the commercial.
The good thing about this was that they didn't have to pay them as much, and could focus on putting more budget into the shooting itself. If Ken or Steve were to emerge as an outstanding player shortly after, the commercial would easily pay for itself.
After going through the unfortunate process of makeup being caked on his face, Ken looked in the mirror and almost did not recognize himself. The only part that he was happy with was his hair.
"Alright, head upstairs. The director has been waiting for you." The makeup lady said, shooing him away.
By now, Steve and the other person had left, so he moved through the Yanks lockers and arrived back onto the field.
His eyes scanned the field and he saw Steve and the curly-haired person talking to a short man nearby. After making his way over, he apologized for being late.
"Ken, I'm Julian Chavez, the director for today's shoot." The short man stated. He had a brown man bun with some bleach blond hair streaked through it and his fashion looked to be state of the art.
"Nice to meet you." Ken replied, bowing slightly.
"These two are your co-stars for today: Stephen Adams from the Texas Riders, and Carlos Toro from LA Evaders. We'll be shooting a commercial for our new cleats, the one's you're wearing now." The man explained.
However, Ken froze when he heard the second name before his head snapped to the curly-haired person.