きみが忘れた世界のおわり 刊行記念〈特別短編〉「花が咲くまで」

This is a short story about an artist who needs to finish a piece to graduate but can't seem to find the will to create and their experience volunteering in a special support classroom for children with school refusal. As you can probably guess, the volunteer work inspires them in the end, but I found it done without being too schmaltzy or using the children as inspirational props. For me, it was a bit slow at the beginning but picked up in the middle.

There's no furigana. While the vocabulary is not overly restricted or simple, I found the writing style easy to follow, and there is only a little specialized art-related vocabulary. The story is also broken into sections, so if you don't have the vocabulary or the stamina to read it all in one sitting, there are easy break points.