It's one of the oldest and most well-known stories in Christianity, passed down through two millennia of history. There's no guarantee that the 'Abel' you know and the 'Cain' you asked about bear any deeper resemblance to the brothers from the Old Testament, but indeed, whoever who named them must be very unusual to have done so after mankind's first murderer and his little brother.

[It's poetic, in a decidedly twisted sense. She thinks back to the first time they met inside that cave, and how she off-handedly called him a shepherd.

She was more 'right' than she expected to be.]

It almost reads like an ill omen, yes, but if he was reluctant in talking to you about it, then that just gives the story and any parallels it may bear to his own life more credibility.

[No, none of this changes anything in the big picture. But it's kind of neat in that "The More You Know ☆" sense, isn't it?]