(<●>ω<●>)

Both eyes are built from the same three characters: a ● (BLACK CIRCLE) with a < on its left and a > on its right. The two strokes of < meet at a point on its left and spread apart toward the circle, and > does the same in reverse, so together they draw nothing of the eye but its two pointed corners, where the upper and lower lids meet, and the dark iris fills everything in between. In Japanese fonts ● is a full-width disc that rises above the < and > and drops below them, as if the iris were bulging past the rims of the eye, so the face seems to stare without blinking; many Latin fonts draw it no taller than the < and >, or smaller. The mouth is ω, GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA, the same one as in (・ω・), held between the > of the left eye and the < of the right, and there is not one space in all nine characters. Taken on their own, those three middle characters, >ω<, are exactly what sits inside (>ω<), the face with its eyes squeezed shut. Here each > and < has a ● on the side away from the mouth and another < or > beyond that, so the strokes that were shut eyes in (>ω<) become the corners of eyes opened as wide as they go. On X it turned up in 2016 in a post announcing a kaomoji app; the post was just the face and a few hashtags, with no word on when to use it.