Soon enough, Conrad realized that almost every relative he had was completely useless.
They had only come to the mansion because they wanted to know if they would get anything from his father's property. But as soon as they found out that he had inherited nothing but debt, they completely shut their doors on Conrad.
The same went for the family friends.
To be honest, Conrad wasn't even that surprised. Deep down, he always knew they were those small, selfish bastards. Still, a tiny part of him had hoped that at least one of them would let him stay for a few days until he found some kind of house to live in.
No one did.
Now, the only person Conrad truly knew and trusted was Tom.
Yeah...
Just Tom.
Tom had been Conrad's best friend since childhood.
Tom was homeless from the day he was born. He was also an orphan. His father left his mother as soon as he found out she was pregnant, and his mother died while giving birth to him. He was then raised by Conrad's family's gardeners, who also passed away when Tom was ten years old.
From that day onward, Conrad's parents took him in, and both boys were sent to the same boarding school. They graduated together when they turned eighteen, and ever since then, Tom had been pursuing law.
He wasn't exactly a lawyer yet.
He just knew enough about law to understand things that Conrad didn't.
And now...
Ironically...
Tom was homeless once again.
Hat-trick.
Now Conrad was homeless too.
So the two brothers set out together to find a place they could call home.
Conrad's aunt offered him a place to stay until he found a job, started making money, and could stand on his own feet.
But there was one condition.
Tom wasn't even allowed to come close to the house.
Conrad immediately refused.
"Wherever there is Tom..."
"...my shadow will be there too."
Without saying another word, he walked away.
Now both of them wandered from place to place looking for work and somewhere to stay.
They were both only nineteen years old.
Tall.
Good-looking.
Young.
They thought they could eventually work for some kind of modelling agency.
Unfortunately, modelling required connections and a bit of nepotism.
So...
They were kicked out.
Almost immediately.
Another unbelievable thing about them was that they shared the exact same birthday.
5th February.
Not only that...
They were born at almost the exact same time.
What were the chances?
By the time night arrived, it was raining heavily.
After hours of wandering around, they finally found a tiny place beneath a bridge where they could spend the night.
It wasn't a wide bridge.
More like a narrow concrete platform beside the river—around ten feet long and barely two feet wide.
If both of them lay down normally, one of them would definitely get wet.
At first, they decided to sleep in shifts.
But Conrad knew that if he slept first, Tom would never wake him up.
Tom knew that if he slept first, Conrad would do exactly the same.
After arguing for a while, they came up with the dumbest solution imaginable.
One person would do a plank.
The other would sleep on top.
Since Conrad was stronger, he insisted that Tom sleep on top first.
Surprisingly...
It worked perfectly.
Well...
For a while.
The next thing they knew, both of them woke up completely soaked.
The river had overflowed a little during the night, and Tom had rolled off Conrad in his sleep.
Their first night as homeless brothers...
Was a complete disaster.
Both of them looked at each other for a few seconds.
Then burst out laughing.
"Yeah..."
"We definitely need to find something better for tonight."
And with that, both the bros set out on their own little adventures to see what they could find to benefit themselves and survive another day.