Seeking Professional Help

Konpeitō ate from a bowl of vanilla ice cream as he waited in the cafeteria for Angelo to arrive after his morning classes. After Kon's chat with Ghum, he decided that Angelo would be a great person to get help on putting on a more professional persona and making connections. He was the son of a businessman, the student council president, and knew all about helping people as a superhero. There was a lot Kon could learn from him. Perhaps he could bring up his thoughts about becoming a scout as well.

So after texting him during his free time and explaining what he wanted advice on, they agreed to meet up in school to have a quick chat. Admittedly, Konpeitō was embarrassed to ask for help on how to be professional by someone still in school, but Angelo had a lot more life experiences than Kon. Experiences that Kon would kill to have. And when he was friends with Shiloh and others who were in school while doing great for themselves, it was hard for him to continue believing that being in school meant you were in a lower level in life.

Konpeitō knew Angelo was a busy man, but when he entered looking exhausted, he realized just how busy he was. Kon actually felt bad for coming to him for advice. But he was here now, and telling him to go rest up was likely to waste more of his time.

"I've been trying to learn how to be more professional and helpful to people. This was actually, heh, somewhat because of Ghum. He suggested I try to be more like Basilio, and I thought you were the next best thing. And you're an ex-superhero, now student council president..."

As Kon spoke, he realized he wasn't certain on how to explain his predicament. He needed to be more specific. "I really admire all the good you've done and how good you are at building important connections with people. I wanted to know how you got to where you are now. Then I could take notes and try to do the same."

Kon fidgeted with his spoon. No reason to act like he wasn't nervous. If he was sure of himself, he wouldn't be looking to Angelo for help.

Angelo bringing up his dad got a laugh out of Kon. It wasn't meant to be insulting, but on second thought, it could be taken that way. "Sorry, sorry. I just, found it funny. My dad never taught me any of that stuff, so I'm clumsily learning through it now. You don't really learn anything good from an information broker who helped anyone who paid well enough. I'm pretty lucky he was picky with what I could watch. I bet I would've been trying to mimic them become like those shōnen protagonists right about now if I was an otaku like him."

His explanation wasn't supposed to go on for that long, but what could be done about that? Konpeitō liked to talk. A lot. But it (hopefully) got what he wanted across. He didn't have a mentor like Angelo, so now it was up to him to find people to give him tips. Morality was a thing he pretended to have when online. It wasn't something he had to think of and worry about on a day-to-day basis.

Kon was mildly confused about the first part of Angelo's advice. Jobs absolutely helped define the type of person you were. They certainly did in his case. But there were more important things to address first.

"That's my end goal," replied Konpeitō enthusiastically. "Learning how to talk to people, winning them over, and getting a read on them. I think I can be pretty charismatic, but that's only in regular social situations, and, well, the vast majority of my social life was online. I'm not going to say I'm great at reading a room. I'm not going to ask you to be my mentor or anything, I'd just appreciate a point in the right direction."

Konpeitō thought about that for a moment. A team, huh? "I do have my jobs... Closest I have to a team is TWIS. Helping newcomers with their problems on the island helps with my leadership skills. The arena is, well, just me working as an intern and getting experience. I'd have to think about adding something competitive to my schedule without losing all my free time."

This did lead to another idea Kon had. One he was thinking a lot about lately. "I don't want to leave my current jobs, but I've been thinking of pursuing scouting work in the far, far future. Would that count as competitive teamwork?"