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"Eh, fine, fine—I'll go to the supermarket with you," Ethan said, scratching his head.
"Huh? Really, Master?" (Sayuriko) Sayuri blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected him to volunteer to come along, and her eyes lit up with delight.
"Of course," Ethan replied, sounding as lazy and half-asleep as ever. "I can't just let my maid die on me. The world's dangerous, you know? With that fragile little body of yours, you could drop dead just stepping outside. If that happened, I'd be the unlucky one."
His tone might have been casual, even careless, but Sayuri's heart swelled with warmth. "Thank you, thank you, Master!" she said, beaming.
Clinging happily to his arm, she hummed a cheerful tune as they bounced their way toward the supermarket.
Just as they reached the entrance, about to head inside to buy ingredients, a man came walking out, holding—of all things—a bottle of soy sauce.
Neither Ethan nor Sayuri paid him any mind. Just some random extra passing by. Not worth noticing.
But apparently, this extra didn't want to stay an extra.
"Wait a second!" he shouted.
"Huh?"
"Mm? What is it now?" Ethan frowned. "What a pain."
The two looked at the soy sauce guy with matching expressions of mild confusion. Who picks a fight at a supermarket entrance?
Instead of answering, the man spat into his palm, slicked back his hair, adjusted his posture, puffed out his chest, and struck what he clearly thought was a dashing pose.
"Um… excuse me," Sayuri said politely, her brow twitching. "You're kind of in our way. Could you, you know, move?"
"Wait! Don't you think I'm… handsome?" the man asked eagerly, trying to shoot Sayuri a smoldering look. Unfortunately, his eyes were so squinty they were basically just slits—more like someone had drawn them on with a dull pencil.
"Ah? U-uh… maybe?" Sayuri stammered, forcing a polite smile. The longer she looked at him, the stranger he seemed.
Ethan eyed the man from head to toe. Average height. Average build. Average face. Even the soy sauce bottle he carried was painfully average. Everything about this guy screamed background character. The kind of nameless extra you'd forget five seconds after he appeared.
And yet, here he was—refusing to fade into the background like a proper extra should.
"You think I'm handsome too, right? Hahaha! I knew it!" the soy sauce guy laughed, striking another ridiculous pose. "Those other idiots just couldn't see it! How could someone as ridiculously good-looking as me be an extra? Look at me! I've got main character written all over my face!"
People passing by gave him looks of pure disdain. Sayuri cringed. This guy? A protagonist? Please.
"Um, excuse me," she said, stepping subtly behind Ethan. "If you don't actually need anything, could you please move aside? We, uh, need to buy groceries…"
Ethan stayed quiet, curious to see where this disaster was going.
"Of course I have something to say!" the soy sauce guy declared dramatically. "Be my maid! You said it yourself—I'm handsome! I'm destined to be the main character! As my maid, you'd get way more screen time! Come on, join me!"
Ethan's eyebrow twitched. Not only was this idiot delusional enough to think he was a protagonist—he was trying to steal his maid.
"Who the hell are you," Ethan snapped, "to think you can take my maid?"
"Your maid? Hmph! Not anymore!" the soy sauce man announced proudly. "Remember this name—I am the legendary Handsome Soy Sauce Guy—"
He never got to finish.
Something that looked like a dandelion drifted down from above, landing softly on his shoulder.
Then—
BOOM!
A deafening explosion tore through the air. The soy sauce bottle shattered, and the "handsome guy" became nothing more than a smear of red paste on the pavement.
Ethan sighed and shook his head. "Figures. Extras are extras for a reason. Trying to grab the spotlight never ends well. Didn't even get to say his name before dying."
And thus, let us take a moment of silence for the Handsome Soy Sauce Guy—Nameless in life, forgotten in death. Truly, the perfect extra.
"..."
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