Honestly not very much happened in this volume. I don't mind that it was pretty low key drama, since one of my major worries (see my angst with each installment of the Love Nest series) is that an ongoing series will drag out so long that it ruins itself for me. I have Minato's trust issues when it comes to authors.
Hinohara is still holding strong, though. The vet clinic director stuff got wrapped up at the beginning of this volume, at least for now, with another solid conversation between Shizuma and Minato. I love how comfortable they both are with expressing their true feelings, even when it's tough. In this situation, Minato openly tells Shizuma what he's worried about, and then gets distracted punching a pillow to get some of his feelings out.
To his surprise - because he wasn't actually pushing for Shizuma to do anything in response - Shizuma offers to transfer to a different veterinarian's office if it'll make Minato feel more comfortable. And then this is an important bit: when Minato says wow, you'd do that so easily, just for me, Shizuma says that no, it's not easy, and he doesn't really want to. It would be a big ask. And he'll definitely do it if Minato wants him to, because at the end of the day, Minato is his absolute top priority. But he's clear that it's not something he personally wants to do, and it could backtrack his career a little.
This is the type of open, honest, balanced communication that couples - especially spouses - engage in when making big life decisions. Or at least they should.
And Minato's had a lot of growth, too; he knows he's jealous and petty and flies off the emotional handle pretty easily, but most of the time now it's pretty easy for him to circle back to a more reasonable state once he's blown off a little steam. He states right out that it's likely enough that he'll find someone else to be jealous of, so it's pointless to switch jobs just for that. Instead they'll work on making their relationship strong enough to withstand any obstacles and anyone who might try to criticize it.
The director isn't present much in this volume; I don't know if there's going to be a spinoff with her and the other new vet, Shizuma's friend, but there were definitely some little hints thrown in.
Mostly this volume was about Shizuma and Minato trying to cement their relationship more by finally finding that new apartment to share. Except, unlike their brothers' experience, they run into difficulties. Namely, a perfect apartment with a landlord who would've been unbearably intrusive even if he hadn't turned out to be homophobic.
I loved the scene in the park after, with another really great conversation, and some nice humor with the parents and kids at the playground - showing that not all of society is closed off, and that the landlord expressing his concern about "the families" was just deflecting his own intolerance. It's also good that neither Shizuma or Minato or portrayed as "right" in this situation. Yeah, it would be wonderful if they could just be open and honest at all times, like Shizuma wanted - since they ended up with an LGBT+ friendly realtor, she might've steered clear of that landlord's property if she'd known upfront. But not all situations will go that smoothly, and Minato has his reasons - and a lot more lived history and bad experiences - to draw from.
There's a balance, and they're always working on finding it.
Loved Minato and Shizuma's mom becoming friends, even though it's a pretty sad scene, since he is still hiding their relationship there. He doesn't want to tell Shizuma that he's worried about disappointing his mom specifically because she so badly wants a daughter and grandkids...but doesn't want to pressure either of her sons, one of whom she knows is in a committed gay relationship. Although really, either of those brothers would be fairly likely to adopt kids in the future, so I don't think that'll be a big concern for her.
The birthday stuff, photoshoot, and bears in the woods felt like a little bit of filler material, but there were some nice scenes in there, too. Beautiful art, as always, and I loved how Minato threatened to abandon Shizuma to the bears to save his own skin and then (clumsily) did the exact opposite when push came to shove.
While I'm perfectly fine having so much more space given to Minato's and Shizuma's story, there is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, I guess, about how they keep going through all these real life struggles while their brothers seemed to breeze through it all. Happy relationship, parental approval, no problems moving in together, etc. I guess we won't ever loop back to them to see more of their struggles, although we did get a glimpse of their ongoing more fun activities near the end of this volume.
A couple bonus stories at the end; one I loved, and one was funny but odd. I've never been the hugest fan of those little round creature versions of them (they show up in Hinohara's art periodically), but it's a fun enough dream sequence to fill out some pages.
Hopefully in volume 5 they'll finally get that apartment! I'm wondering how much longer it'll be til the story wraps up? I would love to see more of Shizuma's parents and honestly more of that family life in general with all the animals.