Read "The Comic Man" by Jerome K. Jerome online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
He follows the hero all over the world. This is rough on the hero.
What makes him so gone on the hero is that when they were boys together the hero used to knock him down and kick him. The comic man remembers this with a glow of pride when he is grown up, and it makes him love the hero and determine to devote his life to him.