Tomorrow, I’ll Be Someone’s Girlfriend: Summary and English Availability (Manga & Drama)

Tomorrow, I'll Be Someone's Girlfriend (Japanese title: Ashita, Watashi wa Dareka no Kanojo) is a romance anthology created by Hinao Wono.

The series explores the complex realities of love, loneliness, and self-worth among young women working as rental girlfriends and in the sex industry in Tokyo.



As of August 2023 the manga has more than 5.6 million copies in circulation and won the 68th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōjo category.




It has been collected into 17 volumes and adapted into a two‑season live‑action drama that aired on MBS/TBS between April 2022 and June 2023.

This article covers the plot summary and where to find the manga and the drama in English.

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Overview of the Story

Tomorrow, I’ll Be Someone’s Girlfriend centers on women grappling with various struggles and insecurities, unfolding in an anthology format where each chapter features a different heroine.



Below is a summary of each episode.

Episode 1: “Killing me softly” - Yuki

Yuki (雪), a university student in Tokyo, works as a “rental girlfriend” to cover her tuition and living expenses.


As a child, she was scalded by boiling water and suffered severe facial burns, which she hides with makeup in everyday life.

One day she bumps into Sota, one of her clients, while she’s barefaced, and he discovers her scars.

Even so, his attitude toward her doesn’t change, and during a trip they take together he confesses his feelings.


Yuki wavers, but ultimately decides that she and Sota—who grew up in a warm, happy family—won’t work out.


She adds him to her do-not-accept client list and cuts ties.

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Episode 2: “A Lethal Dose of Freedom” - Rina

Rina (リナ), a classmate of Yuki’s at the same university, is a beautiful, outgoing social butterfly in their club.

Yet she can’t truly connect with others and is haunted by loneliness.

To fill a void she can’t seem to close, she turns to sugar dating.

One day, Rina introduces Yuki to a regular “papa,” Iida.



Under the pretext of arranging a birthday surprise for Rina, Iida secures a one-on-one meeting with Yuki and tries to offer her a paid arrangement, which Yuki refuses.



Realizing that Yuki met Iida, Rina confronts him—only to have Iida, already bored of their relationship, terminate their agreement.



On top of this, a rumor begins to spread in their college that Yuki is working in the sex industry, which deepens Rina’s distrust.



More than anything, Rina is shaken by the fact that Yuki kept things from her; she skips the birthday celebration Yuki had prepared and later unloads her feelings on Yuki.



In response, Yuki opens up about the scars on her face.



But something Rina says upon seeing them wounds Yuki, and Yuki pulls away.

After Yuki has had time to collect herself, she reaches out, and the two manage to repair their friendship.

After the split with Iida, Rina grows close to Yudai, a guy she met when he hit on her.



She confides in him about the loneliness she feels even in a crowd and about her sugar-dating.



Yudai doesn’t judge—he accepts her as she is.



Rina is drawn to that acceptance, and the two become intimate.

Rina is cheerful, caring toward her friends, and beautiful—she seems to have everything, which is why I felt it was such a shame that her self-esteem is so low.


I also often found her hard to relate to, wondering, “If she’s so blessed, why does she feel so unfulfilled?”

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Episode 3: “1mm” - Aya

Ayana (real name: Aya Nakatani) is a rental girlfriend working at the same agency as Yuki.

She has body dysmorphic disorder and pours large sums into cosmetic surgery and cosmetics.

She’s dating Mitsuharu, who first approached her on the street.

One day, with marriage in mind, Mitsuharu arranges a dinner with a married couple who live happily without obsessing over appearances and talks to Ayana about his ideal family life—but Ayana bristles.

She has thought about marrying him, too, yet hesitates because she’s hiding so much from him.



Ayana decides she’ll undergo all the procedures she wants and quit her job before marrying Mitsuharu, but the estimate runs into the tens of thousands of dollars.

To cover the cost, she begins taking the agency’s regulars—like Hiyama—as off-the-books private bookings.

On her way home from one such off-site date with Hiyama, she finds Mitsuharu waiting in front of her building.



He spots her unusually flashy, out-of-character outfit and a LINE message from Hiyama and suspects her of cheating.



Ayana admits she works as a rental girlfriend and tries to explain, but a shocked Mitsuharu leaves.



Later, meeting in a private-room izakaya to talk things through, Ayana confesses that she lied about her job and age—and that she has had cosmetic procedures on almost her entire face.




As Mitsuharu panics, she shows him a pre-surgery photo and walks out; they break up.

Meanwhile, complaints about Ayana’s side deals flood the agency, and its website goes up in flames.

After the CEO fires her, Ayana runs into Yuki on her way home; when Yuki calls out to her, Ayana invites her for a drink.

Since Yuki has also been consulting a cosmetic surgeon about treatment for her scars, they hit it off, and Ayana opens up to Yuki about her past and the way she lives.

She has real backbone, and she became a character I genuinely liked.


Ayana has her flaws—like taking off-the-books bookings—but she draws a firm line at never selling her body, and there are so many things about her that are strong and admirable.


She can sound blunt, but she’s actually kind; there’s even a scene where she teaches a boy named Tsubasa, who’s interested in makeup, how to do it.

I hope she keeps living boldly and finds happiness.

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Episode 4: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” - Moe & Yua

Moe (萌) is one of Rina’s clubmates.


She looks down on girls who get swept up in “girly”/cutesy trends and puts a premium on being true to herself.

Around the time Japan’s first COVID-19 state of emergency was lifted, Moe is drinking at her regular mixed bar, TRAP, when she meets Yua Takahashi, a striking beauty dressed in jirai-kei (a landmine-type) fashion.

Yua (優愛) invites her to a host club.

Moe turns her down at first, but Mikko, TRAP’s mama (proprietress), persuades her to go as “life experience,” so she reluctantly tags along.



Moe can’t enjoy the pushy, off-beat banter from the more eccentric hosts, but with Kaede, a soft-spoken, easy-to-talk-to host, she’s the one person who can admit her vulnerabilities.

Feeling comfortable with him, she chooses Kaede for okuri shimei (send-off pick).

Later, after a drinking party with their university club, Moe heads to TRAP with Rina and a few others for a second round.



Seeing how effortlessly Rina bonds with the staff, Moe is seized by jealousy and a fear that her place is being taken, and she ends up making a snide remark to Rina.

Racked with regret and self-reproach, Moe leaves TRAP, messages Kaede, and goes straight to the host club.

Before long she’s visiting hosts again and again—borrowing money from her parents to keep up.



Hoping to spend even more time with Kaede, she thinks of asking for an introduction to the better-paying rental girlfriend job and, through Rina, reaches out to Yuki.

Yuki, noting Moe’s intentionally androgynous, non-girly style, gently suggests she’s not a good fit.



But with Rina’s coaching on fashion coordination and hair/makeup, Moe does a 180 and transforms into a cute, “marketable” look.

Since there would still be a lag before she could start earning, she ultimately declines the rental-girlfriend work.



Pressured by debts to her parents and a running tab at the host club, Moe takes a scout’s offer and starts working at a delivery-health (outcall escort) agency.

As a delivery-health worker, Moe is worn down by clients’ rough, careless behavior, but she hits it off with Yua, who is also working delivery-health.


After enjoying an after (an after-hours hangout) with Haruhi, Kaede, Moe, and Yua, Moe experiences the thrill of “getting to be the protagonist.”

Feeling like she can’t be the center of attention at university and plagued by alienation, she drops out.

Body and mind frayed, she scrimps to save for Kaede’s birthday event.


On the day itself, on her way to the club, Kaede mistakenly sends her a LINE meant for another customer, and then LINEs from Mikko arrive in quick succession—snapping Moe back to reality.

She stops by TRAP for the first time in a while and tells the master the whole story of her “grand romance.”

Some time later, Moe cuts ties with Kaede and quits the host-club circuit.


She makes plans to meet Yua.


She thanks Yua for giving her “experiences I could never have had on my own,” and says that even though she’s stopped going to hosts, she wants them to stay friends.


Yua, seeing Moe back in her old world, coolly says, “Wow… so tame,” and walks away.

A few years on, Moe restarts her life as a hairstylist.



An ad truck promoting Kaede—now the club’s No. 1 host—rolls by behind her.

This chapter was a compelling, highly memorable read.


The portrayal of Moe—who stubbornly rejects conventional “femininity” and lives with a prickly edge—falling for Kaede, a host, and gradually changing felt incredibly true to life.


Haruhi, the host Yua favors, was a total jerk, but I also liked that Kaede had no façade—he was, for better or worse, a consummate professional.


Moe’s first love didn’t work out, but I’m glad it was with someone who allows her to say, with her head held high, that she experienced a “grand romance.”

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Side Story: “Stairway to Heaven” - Yua

The narrative rewinds to Yua’s high-school years.


In a small town awash with gossip, Yua serves as a young carer for her grandmother with dementia while dreaming of living freely in Tokyo.

The day after she becomes involved with Shunsuke, an office worker living in Tokyo, Yua’s grandmother complains of chest pain.


Yua tries to take her to the hospital, but the grandmother, mindful that Yua had plans to hang out with her friend Mipotsu, says she’ll go by taxi.

Uneasy but persuaded, Yua goes out.

Because of her dementia, the grandmother forgets their exchange, collapses at home, and passes away.

After the funeral, Yua pours out her feelings to her father—who lives in the city and never helped with the caregiving—but he brushes her off.


Despairing, Yua decides to head for Tokyo.

Concerned for her, Mipotsu promises to accompany her for a short while, but when Mipotsu returns home to grab her things, her parents catch her; Yua ends up leaving for Tokyo alone.

She tries to contact Shunsuke but finds herself blocked on LINE.


As she wanders the city with nowhere to go, a recruiter from the sex industry approaches her.

It portrays the harrowing high school years of Yua, a fan-favorite character.


Her inner darkness stems from growing up without real love from her father.


None of it is her fault, yet because of him she becomes a young carer, lives with deep loneliness, and in the end even works in the sex industry to bankroll a host.


It’s a heartbreakingly sad story. Her name, 優愛 (Yua), literally means “kindness” and “love.”


I truly hope the gentle Yua can one day both love and be loved from the heart.

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Episode 5: “Brainwashing” - Runa

Around the time Moe drops out, their club friend Runa (留奈) takes a leave from university and starts working at a high-end soapland (a deluxe bathhouse/brothel).

One day Hayato (隼斗), a livestreamer brought in by a friend, becomes Runa’s client.

Mentally fragile and struggling with a slowdown in his channel plus message-board abuse, he turns into a regular and begins confiding in Runa.

He eventually invites her to see him off the clock.


They’re close in age and both attractive, so Runa accepts—but the relationship slips into friends-with-benefits.


Dissatisfied with that, Runa ends up officially dating him.

Runa and Hayato move in together, and for a while cohabitation is happy.


With Runa’s support, Hayato regains his confidence and resumes streaming in earnest.


Then an exposé YouTuber gets wind of their relationship and blasts it online.


In fact, rumors had already been circulating because Runa had followed Hayato on Twitter under the handle “Iori (伊織).”


As a flood of harassment from viewers pours in, Hayato reproaches Runa for not quitting the soapland while trying to smooth-talk his audience with explanations.


Runa—clear-eyed about money and independence—realizes that being steered by a boyfriend isn’t the answer; building a life on her own terms matters more.


She breaks up with him.

To address the uproar, Hayato apologizes again to his most ardent viewers on a live stream and, with support from his group mates, stages a comeback.


Runa, for her part, quits the soapland.


She consults a lawyer and pursues legal action over defamatory lies and the exposure of her personal information, while preparing to return to university in the spring.



I liked how Runa is smart and doesn’t depend on men, but as she falls for Hayato you can see an inferiority complex begin to take root—a portrayal that felt very true to life.


We later learn she grew up without her parents, which may partly explain her strong fixation on money.


Hayato, meanwhile, comes from a wealthy family and is successful in a popularity-driven line of work, which likely deepened Runa’s sense of inadequacy.

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Episode 6: “What a Wonderful World” - Emi

Emi (江美), a coworker of Runa’s, is a woman in her 40s with strong spiritual beliefs.

The story opens with her talking in Letter-sensei’s online counseling session about Runa quitting the soapland, then proceeds by interweaving flashbacks to Emi’s twenties.

A month after the end of Episode 5, Emi learns that her estranged father has died.


She quits the soapland and returns to her family home.


On her way back from an interview at a local cleaning company, she runs into an old friend, Sachiko.

They reminisce, but Emi can’t help feeling inferior to Sachiko, who married and became a mother.


Two weeks later, Emi is hired by the cleaning company—her first daytime job.


However, she struggles to adapt, repeatedly shows up late, misplaces supplies, and loses the trust of her coworkers, eventually no-call, no-showing.

During a reading, Letter-sensei “sees a vision of serving drinks to men” and points Emi toward working at a local snack bar.


Emi takes a job at Snack Chiemi.


Following Letter-sensei’s long-standing advice to smile, she soon earns a favorable reputation with regulars.


One night, Take-chan, Sachiko’s husband, drops in with his subordinate Iwasaki.


Take-chan flirts with Emi, and she doesn’t entirely mind—but the moment Mirai, a 25-year-old coworker, arrives for her shift, his interest evaporates.

Stung by inferiority, Emi strikes up a conversation with Iwasaki and grows closer to him.


The next day, Sachiko confides her frustration that Take-chan goes out drinking at night and neglects the family, leaving Emi caught in the middle.


After Letter-sensei predicts a “fateful encounter,” Emi redoubles her smile, and before long Take-chan and Iwasaki visit the snack again.


When Take-chan falls asleep at the counter, Iwasaki makes a hard pass at Emi and asks to see her off the clock.

As Emi settles into the snack job, Letter-sensei “senses a dark shadow” over the bar’s mama and urges Emi to invite her for a spiritual cleansing.


Emi obeys and tries to recruit the mama for Letter-sensei’s counseling, only to be scolded: “Even good intentions can be a nuisance.”


Back home, Emi’s mother rebukes her self-centered reasoning—that she moved back purely out of one-sided “consideration”—then signs herself into a nursing home and deeds the house away, leaving.


Mirai also criticizes Emi’s self-sacrificing service style of tolerating customers’ groping.


Though a “fateful encounter” was foretold, all Emi feels is pain; depressed, she agrees when Iwasaki offers to talk outside the bar, and despite having turned him down once, she ends up having a one-night stand with him.

Four days later, Sachiko, suspecting Take-chan of cheating, asks Emi to come to the pub he frequents after work.



Expecting him to show up with another woman, Sachiko instead sees Take-chan arrive with Iwasaki and talk shop, which calms her—until it comes out that Iwasaki has a girlfriend in Tokyo and is in a long-distance relationship due to a temporary regional assignment, and yet he spent the night with Emi.



Overwhelmed, Emi bolts; Sachiko turns to Take-chan to have it out.

This forces Emi to face herself.

She realizes that blaming others for her life has poisoned her relationships—and that she’s been running away from that fact itself.

She breaks with Letter-sensei and apologizes to Sachiko for not warning her about Take-chan.


Take-chan vows to stop going to the snack, but Sachiko can’t forgive him. Still, for the children’s sake, she decides not to divorce and tells Emi she wants to work on the marriage while consulting her.


Back at work, Emi apologizes to the mama for her unexcused absence and for getting involved with Iwasaki, and they reconcile.

A few months later, with her mother moving into the nursing home, Emi gives up the house, starts living on her own, and takes a daytime job at a pachinko parlor.


As a small act of atonement, she and Sachiko—who has left the kids in Take-chan’s care for the evening—go to Tokyo Kinema Club to see a live show by cali≠gari, the band they were once obsessed with.

The arc closes with Emi and Sachiko meeting Yuki’s mother, an old friend of them both, for the first time in decades and sharing a meal at a café—then the story rewinds to two years earlier, linking back to the final scene of Episode 3.

I’m glad Emi was ultimately able to break free from the fortune-telling.


Emi’s despair—the sense that the bill had come due because she’d lived like a child, thinking only of herself, into her forties—really stayed with me.


It made me want to live my life by my own will, not by someone else’s opinions.


Personally, I was deeply moved by her words: “Everyone around me was kind. The world is so wonderful—why didn’t I realize that?”

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Last Episode: No Woman No Cry

The story picks up around the end of Episode 3.


Yuki has begun receiving messages from the mother who once abandoned her.

Yuki doesn’t know what to say.


Mustering her courage, she tells her mother, “Please don’t contact me anymore,” but the message doesn’t get through.

Around this time, through Rina’s introduction, Yuki meets Taiyo (太陽), a friend from Rina’s club.

Unexpectedly, the two hit it off and grow closer.

In truth, Taiyo lives under the constant watch of an overprotective mother who frightens him; he can’t bring himself to tell her to stop.


Naturally, he can’t tell her about his relationship with Yuki either, so he keeps it secret.

Meanwhile, Yuki finally manages to save a little money and begins long-desired treatment for her burn scars.


One session brings almost no visible change, and yet the faintest lightening of the scars gives her a buoyant feeling she’s never known.

Around then, Taiyo opens up to Yuki for the first time about his mother.


Yuki feels his pain as if it were her own, and the two start dating.

In the background, Yuki’s mother is dumped by her boyfriend.


She reaches out to Yuki again and even lies in wait at Yuki’s nearest station so she can confront her in person.

Yuki is confused by her mother’s words—“From now on, you can rely on me”—but also a little happy.


She can’t bring herself to refuse and agrees to meet a second time.

Not having been told in advance that Yuki met her mother, Taiyo gradually begins to control Yuki, much the way his own mother controls him.

Despite clashes, Yuki and Taiyo try to make it work because they still care for each other.

At their third meeting, Yuki asks her mother to “help a little with tuition.” Her mother agrees.

On the day they’re supposed to meet so she can hand over the money, the mother instead answers a summons from the boyfriend she’s gotten back together with—and blocks Yuki’s number.

At the same time, Taiyo’s mother finds out he’s seeing Yuki and berates him.


For the first time, Taiyo pushes back and rejects her.

He goes to tell Yuki what happened, but Yuki—freshly abandoned by her mother yet again—can’t find any comforting words. The two break up.

To stop herself from thinking, Yuki increases her rental-girlfriend shifts and throws herself into work.

Meanwhile, after being dumped yet again, Yuki’s mother shamelessly contacts her once more, inviting her to go to the seaside as they once promised long ago.

They meet at the beach, and Yuki lets everything out.

Her mother flies into a rage and never once apologizes.


Yuki tells her plainly, “This time, I’m the one choosing—of my own will—to leave you.”

Having chosen, by her own will, to value herself, Yuki quits the rental-girlfriend job when she graduates, takes a position at a staffing services company, and begins moving forward with her life.

I’m truly glad Yuki was able to tell her mother a firm goodbye.


Parting with Taiyo was unfortunate, but because of him she realized she wasn’t the only one who felt lonely and found the courage to take a step forward—so I think there were plenty of positives for both of them.


The final volume also checks in on each of the characters we’ve met along the way, which made it very satisfying!

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Live‑Action Drama Adaptation

Owing to the manga's popularity, a live‑action adaptation was announced in March 2022 and aired on the Drama Tokku block of MBS and TBS.


The first season ran from 13 April 2022 to 29 June 2022 and consisted of 12 episodes.


Screenwriters Kisa Miura, Anna Kawahara and Lee Nawon adapted several arcs from the manga, while directors Mai Sakai, Sachiko Kondō and Masato Sugawara brought them to life.


The cast includes Ai Yoshikawa as Yuki, Mayuu Yokota as Rina, Nagisa Saito as Yua and Misato Ugaki as Aya, among others.


A second season aired from 2 May 2023 to 28 June 2023.


Where to watch online?


Disney Platform Distribution acquired global streaming rights, so Disney+ carries the series in many countries.


In some regions the drama is also available on Hulu and Hotstar.


If you are in Japan, the episodes originally aired on MBS and TBS; they are now accessible on Japanese streaming services like U-NEXT and TVer.


International viewers can watch with English subtitles on Disney+ by selecting the appropriate subtitle option.

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Searching for the English version (read online)

Despite its popularity, Tomorrow, I'll Be Someone's Girlfriend has not been officially licensed for English publication.


No North American publisher has announced a print or digital edition.


This means there is no legitimate way to purchase or read an official translation as of August 2025.


As a result, searches like "tomorrow i'll be someone's girlfriend read online" often lead to fan‑translated scans or pirated sites.


While some fans resort to these out of desperation, such sites frequently host unauthorized uploads, may contain poor translations and do not remunerate the author or publisher.

While there is currently no official English manga, publishers may announce a license in the future given the title's success.

Keep an eye on industry news and official announcements rather than relying on unauthorized uploads.

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Conclusion

Although the hugely popular Tomorrow, I’ll Be Someone’s Girlfriend doesn’t have an English edition of the manga, the live-action drama is available with English on services like Disney+.



If you’re searching for the manga in English, one idea is to buy the Japanese e-book and use a tool like ChatGPT to translate it for personal reading.



If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop a comment!

By the way, HelloTalk is a great way to connect with Japanese people and learn about the culture.



You can do language exchanges with people all over the world, including native Japanese speakers.


It’s free to use, so go ahead and install it to get started!