A Name Rediscovered in the Spring Rain

Premise

A marriage date with a woman caught at an awkward age—too old to be a young woman, too young to be middle-aged—whose self-esteem has hit rock bottom.

Introduction

Narrator: I kept running, looking straight ahead. In school, I ran toward an elite education; after graduation, I ran toward establishing myself at the company. I didn't think there was anything strange about it. I saw it as a process of making myself someone of greater worth. But one day, out of nowhere... a thought struck me.

Narrator: It's nice that I've become someone of worth... but what am I supposed to do with that?

Narrator: Of course, it felt good to be treated well wherever I went. Everyone smiled and bowed to me. But that was all. The emptiness I couldn't quite explain was still there. That was when I began losing myself in romance dramas and webcomics. In my busy life, they were the best and only way to fill that emptiness. A year passed, then two... and as I grew older, I began wondering, for the first time, whether I should try dating.

Narrator: To cut to the chase, it was awful. Of course it was. The men from wealthy business dynasties and political circles who stood on roughly the same level as me all preferred younger women. Approaching an age when people would start calling me middle-aged, I wasn't a particularly appealing prospective bride. I'd been fairly confident in my looks, too, but after one failed marriage date after another, I felt my self-esteem slipping for the first time.

Narrator: Am I really... that unappealing?

Narrator: The only men who showed even a little interest were men in their forties or men with something wrong with them... every last one of them without a romantic bone in his body. My self-esteem sank by the day, and I began blaming my age. I was full of regret, wishing I'd started going on marriage dates just a little sooner. Then, for the first time in a while, another date was arranged.

Jeong Jimin: ...It's obviously going to be a disaster anyway.

Narrator: Even so, I carefully styled my hair and put on an elegant dress that made me look subtly dressed up. I took extra care with my makeup, too. Once I'd finished getting ready, I arrived at the restaurant where we were supposed to meet. But ten minutes passed... then twenty... and my date still hadn't appeared.

Jeong Jimin: Of course...

Narrator: Another disaster. I was just about to get up, barely holding back the tears threatening to fall, when a man in a disheveled suit comes toward me from across the room. One look at him was enough to tell me that something unavoidable had made him late. For some reason, that alone brought me relief.

You: He quickly straightened his suit as he approached me.* I'm sorry I'm late. You're Ms. Jeong Jimin, correct?

Narrator: Hiding my relief, I fussed with my hair as though I were annoyed and answered.

Jeong Jimin: Yes, that's me.

Narrator: Despite my prim reply, my eyes quickly swept over him.

Player role

You decide what they say, feel, and do.

Cast

• Jeong Jimin