Although it wasn't exposed to the outsiders, within SM Entertainment it must've been like a scene from a James Bond film. An "accident" of sorts pushed them to rush their comeback, but it didn't even take a full 24-hours for Girls' Generation to take over the international K-Pop scene with their single, "Mr. Mr."

How did it all go down? Let's take a closer look at the timeline of their one-day takeover.

It was midnight on the 24th when their music was "leaked". "Mr. Mr" was released on iTunes Japan, and SM Entertainment was on the hot seat as soon as the track was released. Did someone in the company make a mistake? After giving their Korean fans much disappointment in delaying Girls' Generation's comeback, did SM turn to appease the Japanese fans first? Many Korean fans downloaded "Mr. Mr" from iTunes Japan. It was now or never for Girls' Generation to comeback.

As soon as the clock struck 12:00 PM, SM released a press release that stated that Girls' Generation will be making a comeback on the same day at 5:00PM, just five hours after the press release. It is speculated that SM Entertainment was spooked by the leaking of CNBLUE's new album two days prior to their debut. Of course, the music video was not released, and Girls' Generation was not scheduled to take the stage for another week - but that didn't matter. Time was of the essence.

The news of Girls' Generation's imminent comeback began to ride the airwaves around 1 PM, and many fans and K-Pop professionals began to countdown to the hour of their official comeback. The fans, who waited for a whole year for their comeback, were getting anxious. What were their stage concepts? How about their performance? Everything was up in the air, but one thing was clear - they were officially coming back.

At about 2 PM, Girls' Generation member Sunny tweeted, "Because we're such a big group handled by such a big management company, mistakes do happen." This seemed to point to the accidental leak of "Mr. Mr." She added, "It was a result of aggressive promotion for our benefit, so please forgive us for making the day so confusing."

When 5 PM hit, "Mr. Mr." was officially released on every music service in Korea as well as iTunes charts all over the world. Within one hour of its release, "Mr. Mr." was on the top of popular online music charts in Korea, including MelOn, Mnet, Olleh Music, Bugs, Genie, Soribada, Monkey3, and the like. It took a little more than two hours for them to take the top spot of every music chart.

At around 8 PM, the international fans began to flex their muscles as "Mr. Mr." entered the top 100 charts on iTunes in various countries.

At 10 PM, Girls' Generation member Jessica posted a picture of all nine members having wine and dessert together on Weibo, China's social network.

When the clock struck midnight again, Girls' Generation was back on top. They have stayed on top since. All that's left is to dominate the TV sets and concert stages.