Had this happen to me too

...and at the time I was a turista, probably looking rather white and out of place. Yet a cute ~12 yo turned around to look at me not once, but twice! There was a brief but significant moment of eye contact there for sure.

I do not know how to decode these unspoken sorts of communications. I just try to take them for what they are and not read anything into it. Supposedly most of human communication is non-verbal, so I would guess this sort of interaction is fairly common.