Authors Note: Hey guys! Well, here is my third attempt at a real story. It is based on the French film À la folie... pas du tout, directed by the talented Laetitia Colombani. It was written by Laetitia Colombani and Caroline Thivel. I was really inspired to write a CCS story using this plot as soon as I thought about it. I felt very strongly compelled to do this for reasons unknown. At first it'll seem to be your classic clichéd love story but you'll have to trust me when I say it's not. Just have patience and Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura. It belongs to Clamp. I am simply using their characters for entertainment purposes only. À la folie... pas du tout was written by Laetitia Colombani and Caroline Thivel and directed by Laetitia Colombani. The plot belongs to them. Thank you.

25, July 2005 : Chapter 01, The Party

Meiling's ruby eyes sparkled as she walked happily through the florist shop, admiring the lovely roses that seemed to be everywhere. There were roses of all colors- purple, pink, white, yellow, orange... but a lovely lavender rose caught Meiling's eye above all the rest. She gingerly took it from the bunch it sat with, smiling at it's beauty and inhaling it's sweet scent. This was the rose she wanted. It was perfect.

"One rose for the lovely lady?" asked the cheerful shop attendant with a knowing smile. He took it to the counter and began to wrap it up in colored paper when Meiling handed him a small piece of paper. She shyly brought her hand up to her face, moving her long raven hair behind her ears.

"Could you deliver it to this address, please?" Her bright smile wavered at the man's reply.

"I'm sorry Miss but we don't deliver such small orders." There was a hint of regret in the attendant's voice but those were the rules he was trained to follow so he wouldn't lose his job. He handed the little paper back to her..

"Oh, but sir, it's the anniversary of the day my love and I met." Meiling explained passionately. "This is a surprise for him. His birthday is coming up as well. Could you please deliver it for me?" Her expression looked so sincere and her eyes were pleading. The shop attendant shook his head with a sigh. How could he turn down such a kind young woman?

"Well, alright... But don't tell anyone about this or I could get into trouble. It'll be delivered right away." He took the address from Meiling but she took his hand and placed in it a small pastel envelope to be delivered with the flower, before leaving the store with a familiar bright smile adorning her lovely features. Outside her bicycle was waiting for her, chained to a small tree with tiny white flowers that had just begun to bloom. Just as she peddled off, the florist shop's delivery boy came out the door holding her rose and a few other orders. He plopped them down into the basket of his moped and sped off down the street.

As Meiling rode down the street, the breeze blew her long hair about and tickled her face. She whizzed around the corner where she parked her bike a few blocks down and hurried inside the lovely looking building. The walls within were lined with art work but Meiling didn't have time to look at any of it. She ran up a few flights of stairs and down a hallway, passing spectacular sculptures and other works of art until, finally, she came to a door and knocked quietly before entering.

Quietly, she walked over to the right wall where her portfolio was waiting on a shelf for her before she took her seat in the class of students, sliding her bag off her shoulder and taking her art supplies out. Today they were drawing a man, who sat reclined in the center of the room, using charcoal. Meiling smiled as she sketched away on her canvas but when the instructor came around to check on her students she didn't look as pleased.

"Meiling is that a good likeness of the man in front of you?" she asked looking a bit disappointed in her student.

"No Miss Mizuki, but isn't he handsome?" she replied in a wistful tone. The man she drew sat in the same reclined position as the one in front of her but he had shaggy dark hair rather than the long curly blonde hair of the man in front of her. The face of the man she had been drawing was also in no way similar to the face of the man she was supposed to be drawing.

"Meiling, please draw the model. He and you are here for that reason. Please start over." Miss Mizuki sighed before walking away to check on her other students. Meiling let out a deep sigh before roughly drawing crude squiggles over the hair of the man she had already drawn. It looked as if a child had come and defaced a perfectly good piece of art. Being told to start over had not made her very happy at all so for the rest of the class she continued to deface her original piece with rough and sloppy work that was supposed to look like the model in front of her.

"Well class, our time is up. I'll see you all at the museum." Kaho Mizuki stated before walking back over to Meiling.

"I have exciting news for you Meiling." She said with a grin on her face. Meiling looked up feeling slightly confused. "The Board loved your portfolio, Meiling. They've decided to award you with a scholarship to this institution for the rest of your time here and a spot at the next art show." Meiling's eyes twinkled like stars at the happy news. "But now you have to make sure you follow the instructions." Kaho joked recalling that she had scolded the young woman earlier for not doing so.

"I'll do that Miss Mizuki." Meiling said with assurance, nodding her head rigorously.

"They'd like to see 15 more paintings by September so I suggest you get started right away. It could take you all Summer to get them done, but I have faith in you." Kaho instructed kindly as Meiling got up and collected her things together. She was about to walk out the door when Kaho called out a few last words. "I'm proud of you Meiling and I'm sure your father would be, too."

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As Meiling ran up the stairs for her art class the delivery boy arrived at another building not too far away, with the rose for the one she loved. He hurried inside and up the stairs as quickly as he could to make sure he got all his other orders to their destinations on time. He passed men in white coats and decided for himself that it must have been a doctors office of some sort. On the 2nd floor he met with a young receptionist who had reddish brown hair tied up into two pigtails.

"Is Mr. Syaoran Li in?" he asked panting from the run.

"Dr. Li is right in there. You can go right in." she said politely pointing to a door on the wall behind her. The young man walked into the office, that had walls decorated in certificates along with pictures and diagrams of the human heart, quietly and found Syaoran Li reviewing some patient charts.

"Dr. Syaoran Li? I have a delivery for you." Looking up from the charts, surprise could be seen in his amber eyes. Syaoran nodded motioning for him to place whatever he had on the desk as he returned to the charts. As soon as the boy was gone, however, Syaoran looked up again and his eyebrow raised at the lavender rose that was now resting on his desk. He took it in his hands in confusion before noticing the pastel envelope nestled among the baby's breath. Pulling out the envelope, he looked for a sender's name but the only one on it was his own. Brushing that aside in his mind, he opened up the little envelope to read the note within. A smile touched his lips as he read the neatly written words on the small piece of paper.

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Meiling peddled up to a small café named Twin Bells and locked her bike to the bike rack outside before running inside and throwing on an apron- standard wear for the workers.

"You're late, Missy." said a giggling voice behind her. Meiling whirled around about to burst if she couldn't share the news she had just learned.

"I got the scholarship and a place at the show! Tomoyo, the board loved my work!"

"Oh, that's awesome!" she replied giving her friend a big hug. They hopped up and down like young schoolgirls for a moment but stopped when a young girl ran up to them.

"Meiling! Hi Meiling!" Naoko Yanagisawa shouted. She was a small girl with short brown hair and large circular glasses. Tomoyo's little cousin. Meiling picked the little one up and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Why are you here, Naoko?" Meiling laughed.

"Mama's away so Tomoyo gets to watch me until she gets back!" Naoko chirped.

"As always. But we have fun don't we Naoko?" Tomoyo said lifting her perfectly arched eyebrows to Meiling before smiling at Naoko who nodded her head quickly. Tomoyo went off to seat the customers that had just entered leaving Meiling and Naoko alone at the counter.

"Are you gonna be famous, Meiling?" Naoko squealed in excitement.

"Who knows, but people will definitely see my art now. It's all very exciting." she replied as she sat Naoko down on one of the counter stools and picked up a glass to wash out. She put it down when she saw Tomoyo flirting with a young male customer. Naoko noticed her gaze and as if reading her mind she began to chatter away like young children do.

"His names Eriol and he's been in three times this week! Tomoyo is gonna go out on a date with him tonight and I hope I can stay with you while she goes out!" Naoko beamed at the knowledge she was able to share but quickly stopped talking when Tomoyo approached. She opened up the cash register but instead of placing money inside she took some out and put it in her pocket.

"Well, Naoko, my shifts all done so we can head on over to the book store for some of those ghost stories you told me about. Ready?" she said as she walked away briefly to hang up her apron on the wall. Naoko took this time to ask Meiling a few more questions.

"Will you sleep over tonight, Meiling? Please?"

"I can't tonight, Naoko, I'm meeting Syaoran." Meiling smiled sweetly at the thought of the man she loved.

"You're meeting him again?" Meiling only nodded in response.

"We're gonna lose her for sure if this keeps up." Tomoyo laughed as she came over and scooped Naoko up of the stool to place her on the ground. "See you tomorrow Meiling." The two waved goodbye to her as they left Twin Bells leaving Meiling to finish her own shift alone before heading off to her next job.

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Meiling peered inside the glass bell jar that held a very strange looking plant within.

"It's a very rare plant that only grows in the desert. My husband gave it to me on our wedding day." said Rika Terada, formerly Rika Sasaki, who was standing behind her beaming with pride. "The only way it can survive is if it remains under that bell jar where it's kept in a constant desert like temperature. I would take it on the trip with us but I'm afraid it would die." Rika continued sounding very worried.

"You don't have to worry, Rika. I'll take very good care of it. I'll take good care of the whole house while your gone." Meiling smiled. She would be watching theTerada household while Rika and her husband, Yoshiyuki Terada, toured France, Italy, and Germany for a year.

"Thank you so much for doing this, Meiling. I hope you won't be lonely in this big house all by yourself." Rika stated in a kind tone.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about me." she replied as a blush touching her cheeks laughing a bit at the comment.

"Well, I'm off then. I don't want to miss the flight.Yoshiyuki is already at the airport with everything ready to go." She smiled.

"Enjoy Europe! Don't worry, I'll take care of everything for you." Meiling called out the door as Rika got into her expensive yellow car and sped off to the airport so she wouldn't be late. It had taken her longer than she'd expected to tell Meiling how to care for all the plants in the house. As soon as the car was out of sight, Meiling walked up to the guestroom where she would be sleeping for a whole year. Her suitcase was lying on the bed and she delicately opened it up and started to unpack her clothing.

Meiling stopped when she came to a lovely black dress. She held it up to her slender form and looked in the mirror, smiling at her reflection. It seemed everything made her smile today. This was the dress she'd be wearing to the party that evening. The party where she would see her Syaoran.

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Hired help walked about the room carrying glasses of champagne and hors d'oeuvres on small silver trays. Everyone in attendance was dressed in their very best. Men were in tuxedos and women all wore fine dresses. Meiling wandered through the crowd over to a table covered in more champagne glasses and hors d'oeuvres. She selected a glass and took a sip from it, leaning against the table with the support of her hand and looking around the room.

Yue was engaged in a conversation with a few other men about his internship at Tomoeda General, the local hospital. However he excused himself when he saw Meiling standing a few yards away. He had very strong feelings for Meiling and was fairly open about them even if those feelings weren't returned.

"Hey beautiful." he said in a husky voice. She turned around and smiled seeing her friend. "Where is your cardiologist?" he asked her. Yue knew all of Meiling affections went to him but he loved her none the less.

"He's talking shop over by the band." she laughed gesturing towards the small stage where an orchestra played for the crowd. Yue spotted him at the base of the stage talking intently with three other men.

"What a silly guy, leaving such a lovely lady all alone for any man to swoop in and whisk her off her feet." Yue said, taking a sip of Meiling's champagne before placing it down on the table and escorting her out onto the dance floor.

"It's hard to be together here. Everyone knows Syaoran's wife so we have to be sneaky." Meiling said quietly as she and Yue danced to the lovely orchestrations.

"Meiling, he's married?" Yue whispered in shock. He hadn't had a clue that the man his love was dating was already married.

"He's going to leave her soon. She's a lawyer so she has a lot of work. All I have to do is be patient and let it all fall into place, Yue." she remained quiet so nobody around could hear her words. Yue nodded and looked back at Syaoran Li. He couldn't believe Meiling was part of an affair.

"Oh, I'll be right back!" Meiling said suddenly as she released Yue and hurried off the dance floor. He watched her retreating form, still stuck on her words for a few moments ago. She walked up the stairs and out into a hallway that lead to the unisex bathrooms the facility offered. Yue kept his gaze there and moments later Dr. Syaoran Li passed through his field of vision in the same direction Meiling had gone. He just sighed and walked over to the table he had seen Meiling at, grabbing a drink of his own that he downed quickly before moving on to another glass.

'Should I follow them...?' he thought to himself. Yue decided after downing half the second glass that he indeed should go see what Meiling was up to. With that he went up the stairs and into the hallway but stopped in his tracks and turned around as both Syaoran and Meiling rounded the corner.

"See you later." Syaoran told her and Meiling smiled brightly as she told him the same. Syaoran kept walking but Meiling stopped, spotting Yue facing the wall on the other side of the hallway.

"Yue what are you doing up here?" she questioned as she walked over to him.

"I uh..." Yue held out the half empty glass of champagne in his hand, thinking fast. "I wanted to bring you some champagne."

"Oh, thank you." she smiled and took the glass taking a sip before continuing on her way back to the stairs with Yue in tow. She looked around the room and spotted Syaoran but he was shaking hands with the gentlemen he had been speaking with and getting ready to leave.

"Well, shall we continue our dance?" Yue asked expectantly but Meiling's hurried reply crushed that idea.

"I've gotta get going. Some other time, Yue." and with that she was off.

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Meiling smiled at Syaoran who smiled back. Nat 'King' Cole's "L.O.V.E." playing on the car radio set the mood perfectly. Unfortunately the ride was over all to soon as the car entered the driveway.

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore can…

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Oh and just a heads up, this story is going to be about 10 chapters including an epilogue.