by Sylvanas
Leo Mercer didn't sign up for this. New job. New city. New dating app. Leo, a freshly hired tech assistant at Nova Entertainment, just wanted to stay invisible and do his work. His friend Felix shoves HeartSync onto his phone. Leo sets the distance filter to maximum — no way he's matching with anyone from the office. He matches with "J." Sharp. Witty. Infuriating. The best part of Leo's day. He has no clue who J really is. Julian Cross knows exactly who Leo is. Everyone calls him "Delay" — Nova Entertainment's ruthless new CEO, flown in from San Francisco to shake things up. When he downloaded HeartSync on a dare, he never expected to match with his own assistant. Now he's watching Leo blush across conference tables while flirting with him anonymously at night. He should stop this. He doesn't. What happens when Leo finds out the charming stranger online is the same man who once asked his last assistant "Who's trying to assassinate me with Chinese medicine?" about a cup of coffee? DELAY is a slow-burn MM workplace romance told in dual POV. Expect banter that stings, secrets that simmer, dimples that disarm, and a single question Leo refuses to answer until it's spoken to his face: "You owe me a confession. Say it in person." 109 chapters. One CEO. One assistant. One app. And one secret neither of them can keep forever.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 4 Oct 2026, 07:48 UTC
Entry forecast updated 4 Oct 2026, 07:48 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 57% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 15% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
