If Horimiya is the sweetest shounen romance currently being published in English, Honey So Sweet is its shoujo equivalent. Amu Meguro's story about an adorably awkward high school couple is much tamer than its shounen counterpart and at times sweet enough to rot your teeth, but its underlying charm is in how genuinely nice its characters are. Even though this volume tries to mix things up a bit with more tension in the storylines, Honey So Sweet remains one of the cutest stories out there.

That tension comes from the fact that no one previously really knew who Nao was. Our heroine is what might once have been called “a little slip of a girl,” physically tiny and shy. Since Onise is the kind of boy who gets noticed with his dyed hair and thuggish looks, now that she's in his proximity, others are starting to actually see her. This includes Onise's new friend, Futami, whom he met in volume three. Onise, who has largely felt separated from his peers, is thrilled to have a new buddy, and even more excited to have made this friend all on his own. The two quickly become close, but towards the end of volume three, Futami felt compelled to tell Onise that he had fallen for Nao. Despite some inner twinges, Onise's handling of the situation is both commendable and far beyond the norm for a shoujo romance: he simply decides to trust Nao and let Futami tell her if he needs to. As it turns out, Futami does need to tell her, and decides to do so at the sports festival.

In any other romance of this genre and demographic, this would lead to volumes, or at least chapters, of angst, as Nao and Onise avoid trying to hurt each other and begin to drift apart, Futami a grinning wedge between them. Meguro, however, handles it much differently: she relies on the trust that Nao and Onise have between them, the strength of their feelings, and their security in their relationship. The drama is at a minimum, and even then it is mostly in the characters' heads. Futami is ultimately revealed to be the most troubled character by the whole thing, trying to cope with what he sees as a betrayal of his friend and his own very real feelings for Nao. As he beats himself up for not having noticed her before Onise, he also understands somewhere deep down that even then he might not have had a chance.

It sets up a parallel between he and Ayumu in the second half of the book, when the reluctantly beautiful boy abruptly learns that Yashiro, the fourth member of Nao's friend group, has an older boyfriend. Yashiro has been the most enigmatic character for the duration of the series – we know she presents as cold and prefers to limit her interactions with others, but we haven't had a clear idea of why. This volume answers that question as it delves into her unhappy past. Her boyfriend, a college sophomore to her high school first year, was once her tutor, and also the guy who beat up Onise a few books back. He's seemingly laid back, but older or savvier readers will get an immediate “danger” vibe from him, which is elevated when it is made clear that they're sleeping together. Ayumu has a bad feeling about him immediately, and quickly learns that the guy is in fact no good: he's flagrantly cheating on Yashiro. All of this speaks to Yashiro's unhappiness, with her latching onto the first person who was truly nice to her. While Ayumu can't fully understand it, he can see and point out that the relationship has become unhealthy – and that in fact, if he had been there first, he would have been the better choice. Unlike Futami, Ayumu is determined to make Yashiro see his point of view and to understand where he's coming from. Whether or not Yashiro can fully understand her behavior is still up in the air.

All of this is of course juxtaposed with the series' signature sweetness, so even if Meguro isn't quite as good at blending the tense and the charming elements as we might like, the story never feels bogged down by either. The short story in the back of the book about a girl who is in love with Nao's uncle, does combine the prickly and sweet a bit better and is cute overall, while once again reassuring readers who were made nervous by volume one that Sou is not an option for Nao at all. Meguro's soft art style works very well to help us float away on the story. Although she has some trouble with bodies, faces are very well done and convey the emotions she intends.

Honey So Sweet is, simply put, a charmer. This volume mixes things up a bit with the story about Yashiro and Ayumu, and Futami proves to be a better addition than I had previously thought, but underneath this is really just a lovely little romance about two very nice people. If you prefer your romances angsty or with more overt passion, this might not be the series for you, but if you're looking to be charmed or enjoy smiling gently as you read, Honey So Sweet is still the place to be at volume four.