"...Okay, explaining humans to an alien mode engaged. So humans have all this emotional and cultural stuff that sits on top of sex and is also an end in itself. All the component bits are technically optional - including the sex, for some people - but common components several of which would generally be involved include, like, exchanging presents, and celebrating Valentine's Day because that's a couple thing, and exclusivity with the sex and/or the romance, and, like, emotional intimacy, and a sort of general courtship trajectory, and the relationship having a sort of public-facing aspect where the involved parties' loved ones know, and general life-event-support stuff, and defaulting to each other for situations where having a date is called for, and mutual prioritization in each other's lives, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff. And because all these things are optional, and because all these things can happen without people being technically officially together, there's a fuzzy zone that gets a line drawn through it and that line is called 'deciding to label this thing these people are doing "dating"'. Does that make sense?"