yq rewriting some escaped characters

[maartenSXM]

Given yaml file test.yaml containing this:

foo:
  text: "Press \uF00C"

then yq . test.yaml > yq.yaml results in a file of a different length containing this:

foo:
  text: "Press ✔️"

hexdump test.yaml outputs:

0000000 6f66 3a6f 200a 7420 7865 3a74 2220 7250
0000010 7365 2073 755c 3046 4330 0a22
000001c

hexdump yq.yaml outputs:

0000000 6f66 3a6f 200a 7420 7865 3a74 2220 7250
0000010 7365 2073 80ef 228c 000a
0000019

Given that the escaped 16-bit Unicode characters were valid yaml in the first place, it would be preferable if yq did not rewrite it - at least in some use cases where the yq command is not as simple as the example above. Is there some way to keep yq from doing that? Thank you.