This article is by Woo Ji-won and read by an artificial voice.

After clocking out of work at an office in Gyeonggi on a recent Friday, Juliena Seong rushed to Gwanghwamun in central Seoul for a late work meeting, followed by a hoesik (work dinner).
While her colleagues kept the drinks flowing, Seong held back - in just a few hours, she would be boarding a flight to Kuala Lumpur.
Saying her goodbyes around midnight, she hurried to Incheon International Airport, dragging the suitcase she had been carrying since morning. A few short hours later, she was more than 30,000 feet in the air.
As soon as she landed in Malaysia's capital after a seven-hour flight, her whirlwind 48-hour escape began. She slurped laksa (spicy coconut noodle soup), snapped photos beneath the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, went shopping and even managed to get her hands on a few Labubu dolls.
But soon came the time to return to reality. After a final plate of nasi lemak (a coconut milk rice dish) late Sunday night, she hopped on a flight back to Incheon, landing at 7 a.m. Monday.
And that was only the start of the long day ahead of her. She went home for a quick shower, got dressed and headed straight back to the office.
"I've taken short overseas trips like this several times," said Seong, now in her third year at a 9-to-6 job. She has flown to nearby destinations such as Kota Kinabalu and Nha Trang - each about five hours away - on similar schedules: finish work on Friday, fly overnight and return late Sunday or early Monday morning.

Despite the tight schedule, she says the benefits far outweigh the fatigue.
"I mean, I'd love to take longer vacations, but with limited leave days, I try to make the most of the weekends. I can visit various countries in those spare times, and traveling between work gives me energy - both by recalling past trips and looking forward to the next one."
Like Seong, a growing number of workers, especially younger ones, are heading overseas for weekend escapes, using as few vacation days as possible.
According to data from travel platform Trip.com, round-trip flight bookings by Korean travelers departing on Friday nights and returning on Sunday nights or Monday morning increased by more than 88 percent from January to October this year, compared to the same period last year.
The data also showed that China was the most popular weekend getaway destination, followed by Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand - all of which take between an hour and a half to six hours to reach.
Not long ago, traveling abroad was considered a big undertaking, something that required planning and a fair amount of willpower, even for nearby destinations. But these days, for many young workers - who have stable incomes but little time off - short, high-efficiency overseas trips have become a common weekend activity.
For some, such quick overseas getaways have practically become a lifestyle.

Rather than using all her vacation days on one long trip, she plans them strategically to travel as often as possible, taking short but smart vacations that require only one or two days off each time.
The growing flexibility in working hours since Covid-19 has also helped.
"My company has flexible working hours, so leaving early or starting late is fine," said Choi, who also runs the Instagram account jjjoah0, where she introduces herself as a "vacation-day traveler" and shares tips on traveling while making the most of limited leave. "That makes short trips much less tiring. Also, to make the most of my limited vacation days, I have to put up with the fatigue."
On social media platforms like Instagram, posts featuring office workers taking weekend trips abroad without using vacation days have become increasingly common and popular.

In the video, she takes an 8:30 p.m. Friday flight to Cebu after finishing work at 6 p.m. Upon landing around midnight, she changes into a swimsuit at the airport, heads to Oslob to see whale sharks at 3 a.m., visits Tumalog Falls...

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