Romeo and Juliet: The Sad Life of a Third Wheel
On a Saturday morning, you are on a rendezvous, on your couch, watching a kdrama show with two male leads that has you rooting for the second ML, probably because he is hotter, more attentive, or even worse, his red flag is not as dark as the Main Lead’s. But in the end, the Main lead wins the Female Lead over, leaving the other guy to a pathetic and open-ended conclusion.
You feel like ravaging and expressing your annoyance, so you go online and find that many other people love that the ML was picked over the second one. You're now the silly one, the one that roots for the leftovers.
So you remember one classic reference of Rosalind in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and how she was treated as the villain, the conflict that made the despondent Romeo a more infatuated lover to Juliet.
A third wheel can be a stepping stone to the main goal, a wedge that drives the characters to a state of misunderstanding, or like Rosalind, a person that teaches longing and unspoken affection to the Male Lead.
A sad stance, if you ask me.