A small face with embarrassed-curved eyes and a single sweat drop. The eyes ⌒ on each side are gentle downward curves — a ‘crinkled with discomfort’ look that lands halfway between ‘smiling’ and ‘wincing.’ The mouth _ is a flat closed line, and the trailing ; on the right marks a sweat drop sliding down the face.
The genius of this kaomoji is in how the same ⌒ shape that can read as ‘happy closed eye’ here reads as ’embarrassed closed eye.’ The sweat drop is what flips the meaning. Without it, this would be a small content smile; with it, the same closed eyes become ‘oh no, I should not have said that.’
Use it after a typo, after admitting you forgot something small, after a slight social misstep. It is one of the most-used kaomoji on Japanese chat because it gracefully signals ‘I noticed my own mistake’ without making a big deal of it. On Discord and Twitter/X it works as a quick reaction in self-deprecating moments.
The matching Japanese onomatopoeia is あせあせ (ase-ase — sweating from nervousness). Pair with phrases like ごめんごめん (‘gomen gomen’ — ‘sorry, sorry’), やってしまった (‘yatte shimatta’ — ‘I really did it’ = ‘I messed up’), or simply あ、ちがった (‘a, chigatta’ — ‘oh, that was wrong’).