The smirk just makes his brow furrow more. He doesn't understand people like this. They don't make sense.

"Well, I'm not interested in this so-called hope and I don't have any intention of discontinuing my 'efforts'." Yes, the quotes around that are audible. What effort? This is way more natural than smiling, which he doesn't have a lot of cause to do right now anyway. And one might think this is an attempt to sound older than he is, but this is seriously the way he talks.