Like Someone in Love opens in a swanky Tokyo bar. We see a woman with bright red hair doing something on her phone; a man in a suit sitting, eating, smoking, and drinking with two women; a man in a suit standing, smoking, and talking with two women; more well-dressed men and women milling about in the background. As lounge music plays, we hear a woman's voice: “I'm not lying to you. When did I ever lie to you?” As she continues it becomes clear that the speaker is not in the frame (though we keep checking the faces of the women on screen to confirm this). When this mystery is abruptly resolved with a cut we see she is a slight young woman (played by Rin Takanashi), sitting alone at a table. Her name is Akiko, and she has been talking on her phone. She insists again on her honesty: “I swear to you I'm telling you the truth.” Akiko tells her interlocutor – apparently a jealous boyfriend – that she is at Café Teo. The man orders her to go to the bathroom, where he demands she count the tiles; it seems he intends on counting the tiles at Teo himself to catch her out. Akiko is not at Café Teo but Bar Rizzo, where she works as a hostess.

After Akiko returns from the bathroom a man in a crisp white shirt joins her at her table. He wants to give her some relationship advice. He says her dishonesty will only cause her further pain and eventually destroy her (“Everything should be made clear from the beginning,” he says, “so that lines are not crossed”). As they talk it becomes clear he is her boss, which is to say pimp. He has a job for her tonight. Akiko says she doesn't want it: she is too busy with exams, plus her grandmother is in Tokyo and wants to visit her before she leaves in the morning. But the man insists. He says her excuses are lousy; that there is no point spending such a short amount of time with her grandmother anyway; that the job is very important and involves a man for whom he has great respect; that considering her past refusals of work she does not have a choice in the matter; that she will not regret it.