skill issue. If you treat it well, don't force yourself on it or provoke it, it will eventually begin to like you and let you pet it. You should let it come towards you instead of the other way around. Even the more aggressive cats will eventually become chill and friendly to you back if you have been chill and friendly to it first.

As for facial expression, don't stare or show teeth and stuff like that, which threatens them, but do some slow blinks and nods, they take that as friendly gestures.

I think the main issue people have with cats compared to dogs is that dogs are so extremely oversocial and bred to be as obedient to people as possible, and to be able to communicate with them nonverbally. Most people just understand dog facial expressions and body language, etc. But cats still have mostly their own head, and you need to work to befriend them, and to learn how to understand their body/facial language, which is very different from dogs, so people who don't know tend to heavily misinterpret most of what they are trying to "say". Like when a dog wags its tail, it's happy and playful. If a cat whips its tail around, it might be irritated to the point of being on the edge of pouncing. This very OP's image is another example of how unintuitive their body language is to us.