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Her head was still throbbing, but Kealey hadn’t wanted to take the time to get it checked out at the scene of the hostage situation. Too much had happened, and there were way too many people in worse shape than she was. It was a simple bump to the back of the head and a resultant headache. It wasn’t like she’d dangled, or fallen from, a second story window.

Andrew was going to be bruised from head to toe after all of that, not to mention the emotional strain he was probably going through. Sure he’d held himself together well…but she could feel it underneath everything else. It was the same emotions that were struggling to gain headway inside of her. They were scary. Really scary because they were strong. As she made her way to Shin’s room to knock on his door, her belly rolled a little and she took a deep breath. There weren’t any ficus trees around to save her…so she simply settled for calming herself down.

She made it to his door and knocked. No answer. She knocked again. Still no answer.

New emotion. Frustration. Where was he? Kealey started searching all the most likely places. She needed to talk to him, somehow she thought he’d understand what she was going through…whatever that was.

Living Room? No. Kitchen? No. Library? No. Her room? No. It was starting to defy logic that Kealey couldn’t find Shin, when suddenly she remembered.

They’d spoken about him giving up the Mansion Greeter job, but Shin was still working at trying to find a replacement for himself. Kealey made her way towards his office. She could feel emotions inside as she approached, and knocked at the same time she opened the door, hoping Shin wasn’t working with a student.

”I threw up on a Ficus” she burst out, then clasped hands over her mouth.

Well. That was one way to start a conversation.

Kealey grinned at the praise Shin gave her when she pronounced his name right. She still felt a little sheepish about the whole thing and really wondered how she had managed to go so long without the information, but they’d moved past that and she wasn’t going to rehash the memory. Apparently the way she’d said the name was cute too. Huh. Shin’s first name wasn’t Shin. Who’d have thought?

He pointed out that all she had to do to get his attention from now on was say his name…but then he reneged, apparently if she said it too often, it would be too cute and that would be a bad thing. That was mind boggling too.

”Now why on Earth would you want me to not be cute?” she asked as the bus pulled up and people started to pile on. This trip was not going to be as empty as the other one had been.

She thought about it for a few moments, then smirked slightly, ”Then again…maybe I should save it for special occasions.”

Kealey could feel Shin trying to decide whether or not he was going to tell her his name again. She thought she’d heard right, but the fact of the matter was before she started trying to say it…she wanted to be sure.

Sure Shin had said that he was only going to repeat it once…but had he really been serious? Apparently he had.

He made a decision though, and spoke out loud this time. Kealey listened, making note of where the emphasis went. She was still a little shocked, and a little confused by the whole thing. Shin wasn’t even a part of his first name. It was a nickname based off of his…last name.

Kealey shook off the oddness of that and nodded her head to show she understood. ”Tetsuya.” she said simply, then grinned at herself. She’d done a good job. She tried it again, just for good measure. It was a nice name.

Confusion faded into…something that wasn’t contrition, but felt similar in that it felt like Shin was trying to claim some ownership? It was hard to find the right word, but Kealey knew the emotions. It made her feel better. At least he wasn’t mad that over all this time she’d never figured out the fact that Shin wasn’t actually his name.

They had stopped walking by this point and when Shin reached out and put his hands on her shoulders, Kealey avoided his eyes for a moment, then gave up and looked at him as he spoke. His full name was hard to pronounce…he only gave it out some of the time…to people who were close to him. Kealey blinked at that for a moment…if she wasn’t close to him, she kind of wanted to know what the qualifications were.

He re-qualified the statement, and Kealey nodded her head. That made more sense. His feelings on the matter also helped. It wasn’t a big deal…well, it was…but it wasn’t in the sense that she was making it a big deal. He was intent, and he was going to tell her…but he was going to say it quietly.

Shin whispered his name in her ear.

Kealey tilted her head.

”Can you say it again?”

Shin. Was his nickname.

The newspaper crumbled more in Kealey’s fists as more heat rushed to her cheeks. All this time and she didn’t know her boyfriend’s name.

It really seemed to defy reason, and Shin was every bit as confused as she was. That was probably the worst part. It felt like she should have known….

Kealey thought back, trying to locate a time in her memory when she’d been given this information. It absolutely defied logic.

”So…what is your real name?” sure she’d seen it in the newspaper…but Kealey hadn’t really been paying attention.

Ah, Andrew had already been planning to cook something, and Shin had simply joined in the master plan. That made sense.

Wait…no it didn’t. It was still an outrageously strange story. Granted, Kealey thought, it had all turned out well in the end. The fact still remained, that was a really late midnight snack.

She smiled back at Shin’s groggy grin and considered letting her concerned thoughts go and simply snuggling this part of the morning away. It would have been the easy way…but something needed to be said. Something had needed said for a while.

Kealey reached over to mess with Shin’s hair as she talked, wondering if this was going to end up being an easy conversation or a difficult one.

”Have you ever wondered how is it with all the stuff you do, you can’t sleep?" she asked gently, "Do you think maybe you’re trying to do a little too much?”