What was Steve's first interaction with an Enderman like?
Came across one deep in the night under a starry sky, saw it picking up and moving around dirt, instantly assuming it was trying to build something. It was slow and still, not very threatening, albeit a bit creepy. Naturally, Steve approached it and tried to establish good relations with some friendly eye contact.
And then cue like a chase scene from a horror film where you don't quite see the thing that's chasing you but you hear it and you feel it in your head as it teleports and blends into the night.
I like imagining after the first encounter, Steve gets a weird irrational fear of these things in particular. Not like creepers, something about the endermen just particularly freaks them out and messes with their head. They keep encounters as scarce as possible for a long while.
