Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura is not mine. I only have the plot of this story.

-- The Probability is Zero --

Chapter 6

Sakura Kinomoto has never felt more nervous than she was at the moment. She could not sleep at all last night and she was slightly agitated every time a person asked her whether she was alright or not.

She did not believe that there were some people who could just ask her on such an insensitive question over and over again. She could not believe in just how many people around her apparently born to be ignorant.

Couldn't they see her eye bags? Didn't they notice that her eyes were all puffy? Weren't the dark circles around her eyes that made her sworn that she looked more like a Chinese Panda by seconds visible enough? Shouldn't they notice that by now her face was paler than a ghost?

In short, of course she was not alright at all. She was totally not alright ever since the day Eriol mentioned to her that she would be having a press conference together with none other than the Hong Kong famous superstar himself; Li Syaoran. The fact that now she was rumored to be Syaoran's 'mysterious girlfriend' already made her nauseous enough without even have to think on what should she say during the meeting with the press.

--

It was all began with the revelation of her story to her best friend the night before. Sakura has decided to tell Tomoyo straightaway after Syaoran finally got her family's permission to hire her as his new manager.

Although Sakura could not be considered as a sensitive person, she knew one thing for sure. Tomoyo was her best friend for life and one of the most important people for her. Thus, she never wanted Tomoyo to be the last person to know about the news especially since she was supposed to be her best friend. And for Sakura, nothing was more important than to appreciate her best friend by telling the whole story with all the necessary details.

However, Sakura almost regretted her decision of telling Tomoyo that soon. Ever since she broke the news that night, the only thing Tomoyo ever did was forcing her doing things that she definitely would not do in her ordinary days.

Tomoyo has been persuading her to take care of her appearance before her big day tomorrow. And after what it seemed like a couple of hours of constant pestering from Tomoyo ever since the moment she forced her to wake up in a perfect resemblance with Li Syaoran's style (the guy also had a habit of waking her up early morning everyday ever since he was staying at her house; which she always suspected he was doing that merely to piss her off. Still, this morning Tomoyo beat his timing and woke an angry Sakura instead.), finally Sakura gave up and let whatever Tomoyo wanted her to do.

In these past few days, Sakura could not help but wondering where were the days when she could sleep for a healthy-8-hours-straight gone. She has not been able to sleep soundly these past few days because all the fatigue she got from her crazy trips with Syaoran and now apparently she also had to deal with her best friend antics to make her looked like a supermodel whatsoever. And she has not even started with the upcoming press conference. Just a thought on what kinds of questions would be asked to her and whether she could answer them smartly has made her running cold sweat and could not sleep at all even when she actually really wanted to.

Much to her irritation, Sakura also noticed the changes around her. Now even her best friend suddenly also seemed to be very eager to march into her life as well; perfectly reminding her of a certain someone whom she just met only for couple of days but already made her life a living hell.

--

Tomoyo first plan was to make Sakura undergoing some skin treatment which hopefully would improve her complexion. Sakura's argument that it would not work that way and a mere one time visit would not change anything; was completely ignored by her best friend.

Finally, Tomoyo had to literally drag Sakura to have a complete makeover on her skin tone in the beauty centre where she always visited at least once a month.

Sakura completely devastated with Tomoyo's idea and she only agreed with her at last merely to avoid from listening to any of Tomoyo's quotations from numerous articles in different kinds of magazines about Syaoran in which he was being gossiped with a lot of devastatingly beautiful women.

"Look at these articles, Sakura! You definitely won't win his heart with skin that's drier than rough papers I got from my Math teacher. Haven't you try to apply some moisturizers?" asked Tomoyo completely aghast. Apparently she just realized that Sakura's complexion was not up to her standard. And she believed that her standards were nothing compared to those beautiful women who were frequently found together with Syaoran while he was still in Hong Kong.

"No, I certainly never apply any moisturizers whatsoever before and it is certainly not a right moment to start it now. And besides, what does it have anything to do with that jerk anyway? Please, don't let me hear you saying that I want to win his heart ever again; it really makes me nauseous and itchy," replied Sakura incredulously. She did not know the connection between her skin types, the rough paper and Tomoyo's Math teacher nor did she ever want to know. She had enough complication in her life at the moment rather than considering anything that Tomoyo said in the first place.

To make her day turned even worse than what it already was, the beautician in charged of her apparently was just the same nutcase as many of the people she met recently. At that point, Sakura started to think that there was a frightening possibility that somehow she was attracting a whole bunch of weirdo without she ever realized it. These past few days were a very good set of examples for her with Li Syaoran undoubtedly as the most irritating weirdo she ever knew so far.

After one long torturous hour inside a room that was colder than her refrigerator at home while she let her skins being touched, pinched, and masked with some lotions that smells oddly like stale bread; finally she could come out alive from there only to find her best friend beaming at her.

When she wanted to pay and leave the counter, the beautician in charge who did her skin treatment awhile ago stop her to explain about some details of her 'problematic' skins. She even recommended her a complete make-up sets and what it seemed like an entire set of artificial beauty products which definitely would make her beyond broke if she ever bought them.

"Listen Tomoyo, I don't have the money to pay for all these rubbish and I certainly do not want my skin to be some sorts of a skin lab," Sakura said exasperatedly while trying to inject some senses into her best friend's brain.

Tomoyo stared at her best friend in great disbelief. Tomorrow was the press conference day and Sakura could still calmly talk about money and all sorts of minor things. Before she could explain to Sakura the importance to keep up her appearance in order to look good side by side with the ever so famous Li Syaoran; the beautician already spoke again.

"Ms. Kinomoto, our price is always very reasonable. These products has been proved to moisten even the driest skin possible and I do recommend you strongly to take these eye care lotions to help you lessened the dark circles around your eyes," said the beautician enthusiastically.

"No thanks; I think I still prefer cooking oil over those things. And of course a couple hours of undisturbed sleep would do justice for my dark circles," answered Sakura impatiently. She certainly did not have time to listen to all nonsense about her complexion or any dark circles. She has done a skin treatment which cost almost half a month of her allowance and she definitely would not want to pay more than that.

When she wanted to usher Tomoyo away from the beauty center, three beauticians were walking to the direction where she stood at the moment. Sakura noticed in time and instantly almost had a hard attack to see that one of them was carrying a tabloid in which its headline showed a very large picture of her together with Syaoran.

It was a nightmare when one of them apparently could vaguely recognize her face. And before the beautician could link her with the horrible picture of herself and Syaoran; she scurried away from the beauty center while grabbing Tomoyo's hand.

Muttered under her breath Sakura said, "Li Syaoran, I promise you will pay for this!"

--

In reality, Sakura wanted to go home straight after she was very close from getting caught in the beauty center. However, Tomoyo still insisted that she needed to have a hair done and much to her annoyance, her best friend did not accept a 'no' for an answer.

Sakura inwardly thought whether Tomoyo somehow has been possessed by Li Syaoran's soul as they spoke. She never recalled Tomoyo ever being very persistent especially over her matters that was not even concerned herself for the slightest.

As if Tomoyo could read her mind she spoke again with a genuine concern and the same wild enthusiasm as she always showed to her at a moment like this.

"Sakura, I am merely doing this for your own good. Listen; there is nothing wrong with a natural beauty. However, you definitely will not attract Syaoran with tight hair-buns like that. I am glad that you finally have removed your glasses. I saw the article and you really looked marvelous. I am truly proud of you, Sakura!"

"I could not even care less about natural beauty whatsoever. Besides, tying my hair like this saves a lot of my time. And by the way Tomoyo, I don't know why you keep on getting the impression that I want to attract that big jerk in the first place, but please just stop it. Honestly, couldn't you suggest someone better than him?" asked Sakura exasperatedly. She knew that her best friend was always a dreamer however she needed to put a stop on it since it was getting more annoying for her.

"And I'm certainly unhappy to wear soft lenses but I don't have any choice. Somebody had a sick joke and hid my glasses. You know that without them I'm almost literally blind. I have been searching high and low for them yet to no avail. So for now I have to stick with these darn soft lenses," added Sakura infuriatingly. She did not know who the culprit behind her missing glasses was. However, once she found out who the person was; she would definitely want a good payback.

Tomoyo shook her head sadly. She never knew anyone as clueless as Sakura when it came to feelings. It was Li Syaoran whom they were talking about and yet the way she talked about him always sounded so casual. It was like it did not mean a thing for her to be that close with a superstar like him when other girls just dying to have a chance to meet him even only for once.

--

Sakura did not know which one was more horrible; her visit to the beauty center or having to wait for such a long queue to have a mere haircut. She argued with Tomoyo for making her waiting this long while they could actually go to her usual place (Ready-in-10-Minutes salon just around the corner of her house). And to add her irritation, her best friend calmly explained that they had to get the best haircut from her usual hairdresser instead.

To add her annoyance even more, all the other women inside that hair salon apparently were also thinking the same thing as Tomoyo. She could not believe that after living for more than 17 years, she only realized it today how troublesome to be a woman was. Besides, if everyone thinking that the best haircut could only be provided by one single person, the chance of the rest of the hairdressers to ever improve their skills for the better was definitely almost zero. And if these women were more than willing to wait for one single hairdresser; it's best for the hairdresser not to hire anyone else since it would save him a lot of money. She really could not understand what these people thought in the first place to walk their life in such complexities. Then again, she never had a knack to understand people anyway.

Much to her relief, after two hours and thirty seven minutes later, finally the hairdresser was ready to makeover her hairstyle.

The hairdresser introduced herself (or himself; Sakura wasn't sure how to address a transvestite although she could roughly guessed that the person surely would prefer to be addressed as a 'she' rather than 'he') as Candy (real name: Matsuo Kobe).

She was the most enthusiastic hairdresser that Sakura has ever met so far; not that she had a lot of experiences with hairdressers to begin with since her usual salon was always the Ready-In-10-Minutes kinds of salons and she never had any specific hairdressers to give her a haircut anyway. The most important thing for her in her usual salon was that their services were very efficient. Sadly, it was totally the opposite of what she had at the moment.

With a lot of exhilarated talks and happy laughs here and there; it was only made Candy dressed her hair really slow. Sakura could not help but thinking it was a real miracle for her to have so many women waiting for her when her service was really slow like that.

"You have a really beautiful hair here, Chibi-Chan. I will give some light coloring to beautify your hair tone; however I would keep the curls if I were you. This is natural curl, right? I am always fond of curls. A lot of people would die to have these kinds of curls like yours, Chibi-Chan. Really marvelous… Splendid!" chirped Candy ecstatically.

The whole conversation about curls and curly made Sakura almost lost her temper. She also noticed that Candy's hair was also curly and that's probably what made him 'fond' of her curly hairs. Although much to her relief, her curls was not as heavy as Candy's since hers was only slightly curly at the end of each hair strand.

"My name is not Chibi-Chan and for sure I don't want my.." Sakura could only leave her sentence hung in the middle since Tomoyo swiftly cut in her sentence.

"Please do whatever you think necessary for her, Candy-Chan," replied Tomoyo sweetly to Candy. Sakura shook her head sadly. Apparently there would be a time for her to have a bunch of people around her who could not be stopped from doing what they like even when that meant sacrificed others like the one that she had at the moment.

"Ah, Tomoyo-Chan, it's quite some time not seeing you around here…" Sakura did not bother to hear the rest of their useless conversation and grabbed one of the many gossips magazines stacked neatly at the toilette table in front of her.

And to her greatest shock for that day; the topmost magazine in that stack was also carrying the picture of herself with Syaoran almost the same with the one that the beautician had. The only difference was that in this picture both of them were running while being chased by a large group of people behind.

In the left bottom of the magazine cover written in a bold capital letters she read 'Li Syaoran with His Sweet Runaway Bride-To-Be.'

Sakura never remembered the day she ever agreed to be Syaoran's runaway bride (although he did jokingly asked her about being his fiancé or wife-to-be before and she really did consider it although only for a fleeting second; but there was nobody else knew about his jokes except Eriol and she still believed that nobody could ever read her private thoughts).

Irritated, she grabbed another magazine and then the next one up until she finished the entire stacks of magazines in front of her but she still failed to find any single magazines which did not have a blow-by-blow article about her with Syaoran as well as seemingly more ridiculous and far from the truth kinds of articles.

"Ah, you also read the article about Li Syaoran's decision to stay in Japan because of that girl, Chibi-Chan?" asked Candy casually; apparently still insisted to call Sakura with Chibi-Chan.

At that moment, Candy was still busily applying some purplish thick liquid which carried quite a strong smell to her hair to notice that Sakura's face went paler upon hearing her words.

Tomoyo almost blabbed the truth that Sakura was the girl Candy talked about. However, before she could utter any word, she caught Sakura's glowering her with a very cold expression that clearly told her not to say anything.

"Well, no. I'm not really interested in reading nonsense like these articles actually. Do you have any other magazines which um… not about gossips?" asked Sakura in a pathetic attempt of changing the topic into something much saner than the current one she was having at the moment.

It was a vain diversion indeed since at that moment; Candy merely fixed her gaze at her as if she was trying very hard to recall who Sakura really was.

"You know, Chibi-Chan, you're surely look like that Syaoran guy's girlfriend especially with your hair down like this," Candy said; tapping her chin gently as if contemplating very hard with her own thoughts.

"Ahahahahaha… Very funny. That's not the first time I've been thought wrongly as somebody else. I think I have a very generic look," answered Sakura nervously.

She wanted to have some supports from her best friend to no evident reply since apparently her best friend was picking the most inappropriate moment to talk with somebody through her cell phone.

"Really?? I have never guessed somebody wrongly before and I don't think this time I made any mistake in thinking that you're the same person with her," Susan pointed Sakura's picture from one of the magazines in front of her.

At that point, Sakura knew that Susan was right; it did not need a genius to see the striking resemblance between herself who was sitting in front of the toilette table with the one in the magazine cover.

Cursing inwardly Sakura could only speak in a barely audible volume, "Nope. As far as I could remember, I never met anyone by the name of Li Syaoran, I don't even recall myself of ever meeting any kinds of superstars before."

However, Candy was never really listening to her last sentence since exactly at that time the front door of the salon opened almost dramatically to reveal a very handsome tall young guy. By the time the guy was already inside the salon; all voice, laughter and mutters were suddenly died down in a very rapid manner.

Intrigued with the sudden changes around her, Sakura turned her around slightly from where she sat at the moment to see who the person responsible for this peculiarity was.

And by the time she noticed who the person was; she almost secretly wished to just faint or die right there in her chair.

That guy was no other than Li Syaoran.

--

She did not know what kind of unlucky coincidence or sick fate that she had to have him visiting the same hair salon with her. She did not even bother to think carefully about the fact that Candy's salon was supposed to be strictly for ladies (as quoted from the small sticker on Candy's glass display just in the front part of her salon). The only thought that was on her mind right now was just to be able to escape before the guy could recognize her. She tried to hide herself frantically behind one of the magazine in which clearly shown the picture of herself and Syaoran laughing happily.

Yet he was not Li Syaoran if he could be deceived with a childish prank like the one Sakura was displaying at the moment. It was very easy to spot her anyway especially since Tomoyo was also sitting leisurely beside her.

Upon noticing Syaoran entering the room; Tomoyo waved her hand happily at him. She was completely ignoring Sakura's hysteric attempts to stop her from catching his attention while busily hide herself behind the gossips magazine.

Before anybody recovered from their shocks, Syaoran was gallantly walking towards Sakura's direction with his usual mocking smile whenever he teased her.

And as if he wanted to make sure that everyone heard what he's going to say; he chose that exact time when the sudden silence still filled up the air to open his mouth and said, "Hey, here you are, Little Girl. I've been looking for you everywhere."

His tone was completely different from the one that he normally used whenever he spoke with her. There were gentleness and caresses that would only make everyone inside the salon thought he was really in love with her. At that point, she knew that nobody would believe her even if she insisted that they were not a couple.

--

Sakura sighed heavily. It was a completely useless attempt for her just now to really try to explain to Candy that she did not know anyone by the name of Li Syaoran when the guy's behavior was clearly showing that he was anything but a stranger to her.

She should have known better than to make any kind of plan involving Syaoran in the first place since he definitely would ruin everything even before it had a chance to start.

Sakura realized only a tad too late that anything concerning the guy by the name of Li Syaoran would never be simple.

-- to be continued --

A/N: Ah, finally another chapter is finished. Please leave your comments and reviews. It really boosts my spirit to update faster somehow when I read that there are some of you who like to read this story until now hehehe…..

To Sakura Panda 63: yes, it's still a mystery for Syaoran to suddenly thinking about Sakura. Who knows that finally he really took notice for the witty girl (lol). I am so sorry for this stupid explanation, which did not help explaining much. But as the story goes, you will see why.

To Empyreal Entity: glad that you like it. Sakura is a prodigy or some sort of genius. She finished her middle school when she was 9+. She was still 17 years old when she graduated from her university. Actually she wanted to continue her master straightaway but since her professors always says that she lacks of understanding about people she had to postpone her plan (she's taking a psychology major and being told that really hurts her pride). In order to prove to those people that they're wrong she wanted to get a job; find a relationship etc. And that's when she met Syaoran.

Tomoyo is an average 17 years old girl around the same age as Sakura; which explains why she was still in her second year of high school. At least that's the average age of second year high school students in my country (grinning). I always thought that Sakura is not a type of girl who out of the blue wants to be a girlfriend of a player like Li Syaoran. At least for now hahahahahah.

To rukz, TheBlackPrincess, wiwionly, coreagurl and m3Nd0gAL thanks for your reviews! I truly appreciate it.

P.S. Yes, in a later part there would be a side story about ExT as well since I always find both to be a very cute couple. Well, please stick with my story as the romance goes on to a crazier pathway (grinning).