His secrets were collateral. They were a contract, a promise that he would not go back on his word. Her flesh, his soul: when she knew things that not even the King knew, things that could ruin him, they became equal.
The working title for this fic was "Cuckoldry for King and Country", which probably gives you some idea of the vibes contained therein. Contains attitudes about sex, sexuality, and Lee Hwi's gender that do not reflect the author's own. :') Many, many thanks to bloodletter for the cheerleading and feedback.
And a note: I've stuck with how character names have been romanized in canonical AO3 tags, and for the most part I've chosen to translate titles, terms, modes of addres, etc., rather than haphazardly insert Korean words. The two exceptions to this are that I used the term "jeogori" because the English "overrobe" lacked specificity and sounded clunky to my ears, and I kept the vocative case ("-ah") in dialogue where Lee Hwi address Lee Hyun, because... well, because to me it feels important to their character dynamic, mostly. I hope this doesn't come across as jarring, and I welcome feedback on this!
Imported from Archive of Our Own. Original work id: 45920860.