DISEASE

> "Some scars don't fade. They speak louder with silence."

There were nights Mun didn't sleep. Not because of exams or ambition, but because silence was louder than the chaos she grew up in. Silence reminded her of the screams, the crashing plates, the slammed doors. Even now, at 19, it still haunts her.

One memory plays on repeat in her mind like a broken cassette. She was ten. Her parents were fighting—again. Words turned to shouts, shouts into things breaking, and then... they left. Both of them. In the middle of the night, they left Mun and Nix alone in a house that had never felt safe.

She clutched her baby brother, too scared to cry. The shadows on the wall became monsters. She didn't sleep. She couldn't. How could she, when fear had rooted itself into her spine?

That night never really ended. It followed her into her teenage years, into her school uniform, into every moment she tried to be "enough."

Her mom came back hours later, smelling of anger and exhaustion, and never once looked guilty. No apology, just complaints about how loud the neighbors were and how disappointing her daughter was becoming.

And it didn't stop there. Mun grew up with a mom who could break her heart in a single sentence and a dad whose silence was louder than war.

But the most unbearable part? The love that never felt like love. The way her mother doted on Nix, kissed his forehead, laughed at his jokes, while Mun sat there invisible, eating silence for dinner. Nix was the golden boy. And Mun? Just a body taking up space.

"I didn't choose to be born," she once whispered into the void.

But it never replied.

Still, she kept trying. Trying to be better, smarter, more lovable. She gave herself no breaks, no room to breathe. She studied until her fingers cramped, until her back ached. She wanted them to say, "We're proud." Just once.

But pride was never hers to receive.

She got beatings instead.

---

Her report card was once filled with A's and a B in math. That was enough to trigger another storm.

"You're useless! Even her cousin got full marks!" her mother screamed.

No one saw how Mun cried silently into her pillow that night, gripping the corner like it was her only anchor.

She didn't stop trying.

But trying never fixed anything.

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