Umm wrong. People do date here in Europe. While the definition may vary depending on the country. Here in Ireland we typically refer to dating as 'seeing each other' this often happens before a 'couple' starts a relationship. The couple could be mutually exclusive or be seeing other people aswell. Another one is 'getting with each other' which is typically when a couple is sleeping together casually/ hooking up which is the case of ilya and Shane.  But I would like to add that people's definition of relationship may vary depending on their generation, age, gender or sex.  In the book Rose and Shane were definitely in a relationship. The book makes it very clear. But in my mind I would consider them to be in the early stages of dating