This kinda feels like it's starting to go off the rails some. Too much going on (drama CDs, the anime, surging popularity) and too many deadlines to keep the story in a thoughtful flow?
Kousuke and Setagawa are almost an afterthought, but in a weird way. We start with Hasekura fake-kissing Setagawa for a photo to make Ken jealous, and completely ignore that Setagawa was closing his eyes, blushing, leaning into it, and thinking about how hot and irresistible Hasekura is...and go straight to Kousuke literally proposing on the beach and Setagawa agreeing to move in with him.
I mean. It's a nice scene. I do want to see that happen, eventually. But. Timing? Pacing?
Yeah, I get the Hasekura thing wasn't actually going to go anywhere, and Ken doesn't have the slightest bit of concern that the two of them might've really kissed. (Kousuke hasn't found out yet. Setagawa is actively not telling him.) But to make Setagawa react that way is...a choice. A weird choice that I don't get with everything else that's going on.
And there is a lot.
Setagawa actually says the word "desperate" when it comes to Kousuke's proposal, and I agree with him. It's...too much, honestly, for this stage in their relationship. Yeah, they kinda have engagement rings already, and have already talked about their future as a longterm thing. But Kousuke is trying really hard to tie Setagawa down, and with the way things are with them right now, it feels less like they're actually ready for it and more like he's increasingly anxious about losing him.
He did eventually explain that comment I was confused about in the previous volume; it was the whole "would you like me more if I was a woman with boobs" thing that for some reason guys in BL worry about a lot. He's sleeping with you, and you're a man. I don't think you need to worry about if he's actually attracted to you.
To his credit, Setagawa immediately takes the initiative to show Kousuke exactly how attracted to him he is, and their interactions are good enough from there that it washes out some of the less great bits from before.
Oddly, when Kousuke and Setagawa do talk about Natsuo, Setagawa drops it immediately and says he doesn't care anymore. Regardless of how Natsuo feels, he's not really worried about it from Kousuke's side and doesn't need to discuss it. Which is mature and healthy, I guess, but as a reader, ???
And I have NO idea what's happening in Natsuo's scenes in this volume, and who that guy is and what relationship they have.
Because we spent the rest of the volume on Ken's and Hasekura's relationship, with them...basically making no progress whatsoever and kind of winding up exactly where they'd started?
Plus another weird little sideplot with Yunge "fake" dating Ken for a day so he could experience life outside of Hasekura, with some hints that he has someone else he's possibly in love with, whom he can only see at night?
Honestly I have no idea what was happening for a good percentage of this volume. We did finally get the backstory of adopting the dog - cuter in the anime I thought - and some good scenes here and there, but it was mostly strangely structured without all the in-depth, character-heavy storytelling I'd really loved in some of those earlier volumes.