The girl I met in the alley pulls out a peace sign without smiling

I was slipping through the alleys of Jakarta. This place was not a tourist attraction, but just a place where locals' houses were lined up, with only a few food stalls here and there. It is not a place that tourists visit in droves. But the locals did not react in any particular way when they recognized me. They weren't particularly friendly, and I didn't encounter any curious children, but they didn't bare their hostility either. I was passing locals as I walked down the alley.

In the meantime, I met the girl in this photo. She was unusually curious about the camera I was carrying. She didn't say anything to me, but she was looking at the camera intently. I wondered if I could get a nice smile if I pointed the camera at her, but that was not the case. The girl's expression didn't particularly change. But she gave me a firm peace sign.

Even in Jakarta, the peace sign is a standard pose when having photos taken. It's common to see the peace sign when I point a camera at children. The peace sign is nowadays held at the mouth. Looking at the girl's face through the peace sign, I felt she was smiling, even though her expression hasn't changed a bit.

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