To answer your question about how to show that a character is crying, not wanting to show emotion in him, or superficially describing his emotions as a narrator, or how to do this without using allusive images and pop culture (emojis)(That las part shakes me off, truth be told).
1.-Many strong characters do not show their feelings for what they are expected to not have any weackness.
Crying is seen as a weakness.
In these plot arcs I like to show that everyone has a weakness and that is fine, many authors talk about how in hard times, even the most ferocious soldiers can feel bad for a fallen partner and how to refuse to showing your feelings only hurts them more and more.
Until they can not anymore, and have to let them out, if handled well, can be moments full of emotions and a critical point in your story.
You can also talk about how a character also feels bad, tears fall from his eyes, but they are unable to understand why you feel this way or on the contrary. Even with tears in their eyes, they refuse to accept that they are bad for not seem weak or emotional. (This is a common story among female characters in environments with men).
2.-To describe as narrator how a character feels is uncommon and it is better to use a combination of narrative with dialogues and actions in the scene that reflect the internal conflict that occurs in our characters.
You can describe in very detail - between the dialogues - the actions that occur before a very sad moment.
Then as a narrator describe what a character does or when the time comes when this character is not able to continue talking or express their feelings, you can narrate how they feel, but using allegories and comparisons so that the public better understand what a character feels exactly.
3.- FIRST ALLOW ME TO END THIS DEBATE HERE AND NOW
If your text is in a book for young adults and teenagers,especialy in a world where they can use whattsapp or other emoji-allowed-media, it´s very good using emojis in order to show emotions in a chat or in the net .
All with moderation of course, not every single line haz to have it, I´m thinking more like, some chats conversations or text messages.
Allas in a normal day, we writers can´t use emojis, only descrive them in a best scenario, but if the YOU whant or NEED to use pictures and the alike for the sake of making a more enjoyable, undertandable and realistic world, you can, and SHOULD. 425