Sumire Iwaya works as an editor for a well known newspaper. She is attractive and graduated from a prestigious university. She goes through a difficult period after being dumped by her boyfriend and getting demoted at work. One day, she picks up a beautiful young man, Takeshi Goda, out of a box. Takeshi looks like her former pet Momo and Sumire offers to let Takeshi live in her home as her pet.

Tramps Like Us is a Japanese josei manga series by Yayoi Ogawa. It is about Sumire, a young professional woman who takes in a younger man as a pet, and her attempts to keep her coworkers and conventionally perfect boyfriend from finding out about her pet. It also deals with the romantic attraction between Sumire and her pet. It was serialised by Kodansha and was released in 14 volumes between 2000 and 2005, with an additional side-story volume being released in 2002. The volumes, barring the side-story volume, were published in English and German by Tokyopop, French by Kurokawa and Italian by Star Comics. The manga was adapted to a TV drama series that aired in Japan on TBS in 2003, and a South Korean film due out in 2011.

What would other people do in the situation? Sumire Iwaya (Noriko Iriyama) is a well educated, successful journalist who has a string of misfortunes. Sumire graduated from Tokyo University and Harvard and works as an editor for a renowned newspaper. But her fiancé dumps her because he becomes tired of living under the shadow of her greater achievements. Then, Sumire fights off the advances of her drunk boss and gets demoted at work. After the series of bad events, Sumire comes home one day to find a homeless young man, Takeshi Goda (Jun Shison), in a cardboard box outside her apartment. Takeshi resembles Sumire’s beloved former dog, Momo, and she has a strong desire to take Takeshi in as a pet.

A woman finds a man in a box in front of her home and takes him in. She jokingly says she wants to keep him as her pet since the man reminds her of her childhood dog. The man agrees. Later the woman discovers that the man is a dance prodigy. Complications arise when her old flame from college returns.