Love Live! Everlasting Shine (Mari Ohara x Male Reader)

Chapter 5 - An Early Morning Meeting

As I sat in my room, stared at my laptop's screen trying to write, but without any idea about what to write about, I ended up losing my focus and in the end was just staring at my phone, playing a gacha game I've been into recently. I ended up so focused on that, that when my concentration was broken by Mari calling me, an hour had passed.

I let out a small sigh as I realized I'm getting further and further behind my self-imposed schedule and answered the phone "What's up Mari?"

"You left something in my office at the school today, and I was wondering if I should bring it to your house tomorrow." Mari said

In a tired tone, I said "Yeah that's alright, but I can just pop by the hotel tomorrow if you'd prefer. But how come you called me rather than a text like usual?"

"Because I love to hear your voice after all." Mari said

For a split second I thought she was seriously flirting with me, and let out a small gasp before I realized that this was just her teasing me a little. I exhaled and said "Very funny Mari."

I heard Mari let out a small giggle and said "You don't know, that could be part of the truth. But another part is that when you came by earlier you seemed a little preoccupied and I was wondering if something was up."

I let out a sigh and said "I'm alright, I've just been struggling with something in my writing. I signed up for a writing project, and I need to submit my story in a week. The issue being that I have no clue what I want to write about, and I can't focus if I don't have some idea of where I'm going."

"And you can't really focus on coming up with an idea?" Mari guessed

"Yeah, that's right. I do have something that I typically do to zone out and figure something out, but late fall obviously isn't the greatest time to try growing plants." I said

"Hey, how about you come by the Hotel tomorrow morning and we'll see if I can help you out?" Mari suggested

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked

"I do yoga in the mornings, and maybe if you join me you can come up with some sort of shiny idea." Mari said

"Alright, I guess we can do that." I said. I mean when I hear about yoga, my mind wanders to thoughts of stretching and relaxing your mind or whatever, so maybe this will help out some.

"Great! Come by at 8:00am in some clothes you can move around." Mari said

"Got it." I said

The two of us talked for a while longer before hanging up, and as I looked at my laptop, I closed it before leaving my desk. I can put off working for one more day, I mean I should hopefully have an idea or two in mind tomorrow afternoon.

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The next day I headed into the lobby of the Ohara Hotel in some sweat pants and a hoodie, only to see that Mari was already waiting for me by the time I got there. As we headed towards each other, I let out a yawn.

"Hey Mari." I said, through a yawn.

"You still tired?" Mari asked

"Yeah, this is an hour before I usually wake up on the weekend, and my body resisted heading to sleep early to account for it." I said

Mari giggled and said "Then we should get some coffee after this"

"Yeah alright." I said, absentmindedly

Mari then guided me to an empty study within the hotels, and with a spring in her step said "Alright, just follow my lead in this, alright?"

"Of course, you're the boss here." I said, a small smile on my face.

Mari stood across from me and we started, Mari sat down and said "Let's try starting with one that's similar enough to a normal stretch after all."

I sat down across from her and tried to mimic her movements as she stretched her legs out to either side and leaned her body forward, her body held up by her crossed arms in front of her, during which I noticed that she was reaching way further than me. "Whoa, you're stretching out way further than me. Granted, on a good day I can barely touch my toes while standing, but still you're practically folding yourself in half." I said, joking

Mari smiled and said "Of course, flexibility is my specialty, not to mention I do yoga pretty regularly."
"I can definitely believe that." I said, my body straining and struggling to hold on, ready to give in

Mari noticed that I was starting to give in, and she said "Let's move to something else."

As we moved to the next, I tried to follow her lead, struggling to keep my body in position, but at the very least talking with Mari seemed to distract myself from the strain a little. That may not be entirely in line with what yoga is about, but I'm gonna die otherwise, and it doesn't look like Mari minds.

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After we finished up, Mari and I sat down on the veranda and had some coffee, which in combination with the past hour of yoga had fully woken me up.

"So how are you feeling now?" Mari asked

"Surprisingly good, now that it's over, I feel surprisingly light and my mind is pretty clear, and the endorphins are nice too." I said

"That's great, so have you come up with any ideas for your story?" Mari asked

"That... hasn't happened yet. But with how I feel as well as zoning out while doing something else, I'll probably be fine." I said

"By the way, you said something last night about how late autumn isn't the best time to grow plants, I didn't know you were a gardener." Mari said

I shrugged and said "It's just something back when I spent a while with my grandma. I have a small plot for my plants, and I like to zone out while I take care of it. It's nice to enjoy some fresh herbs and the like during dinner too."

As Mari smiled at me, the sight of her with the shining waves behind her seemed so gorgeous to me, and I could feel my heart start to race a bit. I've known since a short time after I met her that I thought Mari was really attractive, but how I feel in this moment, I wonder if these feelings for her are much more than that.

The two of us spent a while longer together, chatting to pass the time, until I eventually headed home. The events on that veranda gave me an idea for a story of yearning and the lead trying to understand these feelings welling up inside of him, which I decided to work on some that day, even if I've never tried writing a story like this before.

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In the end, I got a chunk of work on it done that day and finished the first draft the next day as I sat in my bed, trying to avoid moving the muscles I had made so sore from pushing myself to try and keep up with Mari more than I should have the day before.