[Verse 1] I saw you once on a quiet train Your eyes like dusk before the rain You looked at nothing, I looked at you And hoped you somehow felt it too You tucked your hair behind your ear And smiled at someone far, not near I held my breath and clenched my hand But I was never in your plan [Verse 2] The moment passed like breath in air A stolen chance, too small to bear I told myself it wasn’t fate But midnight made me sit and wait You walked away, the door had closed And left me where the silence froze I would have given all I know If you had only said hello [Chorus 1] Just say hello, not love, not stay Not “be with me,” not “don’t walk away” Just one soft word to calm the ache To prove I’m real, for heaven’s sake I don’t want much, I never did Just the voice you always hid No promises, no tale to grow Just say… just say hello [Verse 3] I learned the routes that you would take The coffee shop, the frozen lake I’d pass you like a winter breeze Too quiet, too polite to tease You never looked, you never knew That every glance rewrote my view Of who I was, and who I’m not Of all the dreams that love forgot [Verse 4] I saw you once with someone else And smiled, pretending I was self- Sufficient, wise, untouched, and free But pieces fell apart in me He touched your hand, you laughed with ease I hid behind the willow trees I whispered words you’ll never know They all began with just hello [Chorus 2] Just say hello, and I will go I won’t ask more than what you show No tears, no scenes, no last regret Just let me be someone you met A breath, a flicker, nothing grand Just proof I lived, that I could stand Inside your light before the snow Before the frost that said — no hello [Bridge 1] Years went by and so did you I moved through towns, changed my view I learned to smile with hollow grace But never found another face That burned like yours into my soul That left me less, that made me whole And still each night, I sit below The sky that won't say — hello [Verse 5] I heard you married, had a name A child who maybe looks the same As you did when the light was kind And I still couldn’t free my mind From all the lives we never lived The things I could not give or give It’s tragic how we’ll never know If love was hiding in hello [Bridge 2] Sometimes I write you in my head A letter never to be read I tell you how I saw the stars And thought they might be where you are And in my dreams, you sometimes stay You turn to me, but never say The word I’ve longed for all these years It fades before it hits my ears [Verse 6] Now I am old, my voice is low My steps are slow, my fire slow But still I wait in crowded halls And listen to the quiet calls Of names and greetings in the air That others give and others share And all I want, before I go Is you — to turn and say hello [Chorus 3 – Final Chorus] Just say hello, don’t say it loud Don’t scream it through a broken crowd Just whisper it like falling rain A balm for decades filled with pain You never knew what I would trade To hear the sound your lips had made But now it’s late, and time says no So I will die without hello [Outro – Echo Verse] But if there’s something after this Some quiet world where shadows kiss Where hearts can speak without the fear Of time, or shame, or drawing near Then find me there, beyond the end Not as a stranger — as a friend And let the first thing that you show Be what I begged for: just… hello.
