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In western culture, if you go to lunch or dinner with group of friends without any special purpose, then it's usual for each to pay for each meal separately.
But it Korean culture, dividing the bill seems not so friendly but looks calculative.
So, as long as it's not too many people like over five or something, if group of people go lunch or dinner together, then it's usual for the oldest one to pay for the whole meal.
But, if it keeps repeated, then the oldest one may feel pressure and other younger ones feel sorry for that, so sometimgs younger ones can pay for the meal.
Or, if the lunch or dinner has a special purpose such as the celebration of someone's wedding or something, then the person who has the special purpose or planned the lunch or dinner for that pays for it. We call the person "주인공" which means "Main actor/actress" in movies or soap operas.
What is important here is, spliting the bill at the spot is NOT so common.
It looks so like a business relationship.
But, it's not always true for everyone in every situation. There's exceptions always.
Oldest one paying for the meal is usually for the people who are affordable or having stable job, which means normally for the people who graduated from university and got a job.
For students,it may not be always like that. For them, it's more common to split the bill.
But systematically, splitting a bill is not so easy in stores or restaurants, so, we sometimes do:
a) Gathering the same amount of money at the beginning of the meal, then we hang around until we spend it all.
b) Or, one person pay for it as a representative using his/her credit card, and then afterward the person send his/her bank account numbers with how much money each should send the person.
Then others send the money through wire transfer or online transfer.
This is called "N 빵" This is very common slang. N 빵 means "the price is divided by N (The price/N) ", i.e. no. of people in mathematic term. "빵" here is a slang to mean "treat". So it means "it's the treat of N, i.e. everyone".
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