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While sitting at the back of his classroom, AumSum felt a tickle in his throat. His eyes widened. A cough was coming. But instead of letting it out, he decided to hold it in.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. AumSum gave a proud little smile to himself. No noise, no fuss. He had kept the class quiet. But a strange pressure began building in his chest. It felt like a balloon was slowly inflating inside him. He shifted in his seat, thinking it would go away. It didn’t. In fact, it got worse.

As the lesson went on, the pressure moved up toward his head. His cheeks puffed out, his eyes watered, and the tickle returned, fiercer than before. He clenched his jaw and squeezed his lips together. He was determined not to cough. He didn’t want to draw attention or be sent to the nurse’s office. But his body had other plans.

The trapped cough started bouncing around inside him like a pinball. It made his throat itchy, his ears pop, and his head feel oddly warm.

By lunchtime, he felt exhausted. His chest ached, and he could hardly focus on his sandwich. Even breathing felt strange, like air was moving in the wrong direction. He sat at the edge of the lunch table, quieter than usual.

Later that evening, at home, he tried to lie down and rest, but the feeling hadn’t gone. In fact, it had gotten worse. His mom noticed he looked pale and uncomfortable.

A doctor visit followed, and after a quick check, the answer was simple - holding in a cough could cause all sorts of trouble. Coughing was the body’s way of clearing the airways, not something to be ashamed of or hidden.

From that day on, AumSum never tried to trap his cough again.