A Second Chance

Strange Encounter

It was a normal day for Tommy as he left his apartment and headed over to his favourite spot for a quick bite to eat. He didn't have any work scheduled until the evening, and so he could relax until it was time for him to go get his hair and makeup done.

He was sitting at his favourite table at the rear of the cafe where it was nice and quiet. Tommy picked at his food with one hand while the other held his phone, his eyes only flitting occasionally from the screen to check what he was about to put in his mouth before returning to the battle he was in the middle of.

It was only when he heard a heavy sigh near him that he glanced up.
"!!!" Tommy jumped in surprise at seeing an elderly man in a tan coloured suit and hat sat directly across from him. "Hello. May I help you?" Asked Tommy nervously while pausing his game and setting down his phone.

He'd definitely never met the man before, as he would remember such an intimidating aura. Yet the man didn't seem like a fan either, so what could he want?

The man looked at Tommy and shook his head as if disappointed in what he saw.
"It's hard to believe you're the same person," said the man softly before meeting Tommy's eyes. "Today is your lucky day Mr. Sittichok Pueakpoolpol, I was sent here in order to give you a rare chance to rid yourself of your life's deepest regret."

"Huh?" Tommy wondered if the old man was trying to pull some new kind of con on him. "Sorry but I don't have any deep regrets."

The elderly man's face wasn't amused by the response, but he continued, "On your deathbed forty years from now, there is one deep regret you just can't let go of, preventing you from ascending to where you are meant to go."

Tommy was starting to get worried after hearing the man mentioning his deathbed, and he subtly began typing a message for help on his phone. - Jimmy hurry up! Where are you? - he quickly sent via line. They were meeting at the cafe before going to look at getting new phones.

"Because you did so many kind and charitable acts throughout your life, the gods decided to grant you a chance to free yourself from the regret hindering you from moving on peacefully." The man told him. He didn't sound as if he approved of the decision.

"So, what is my regret? I can't imagine doing anything so bad it would still bother me after forty years." Since Jimmy would be there soon, Tommy felt no harm in playing along to keep the stranger happy. Plus he found it strange the old man assumed he'd believe he'd be on his deathbed at the age of sixty six.

His response brought a smirk to the old man's face. "Boy, you think people regret the things they DID as they die? Wrong! The biggest and deepest regrets that linger are almost always what a person didn't do."

"So what is it didn't I do that I regretted up until death?" Asked Tommy trying hard not to roll his eyes. He was curious what the man would come up with.

"For you Mr Sittichock Pueakpoolpol, it was a simple matter of not confessing your true feelings to your most important person. Claiming you were too scared to accept how you'd felt back then, but even after understanding your own heart, you didn't admit it for fear of being judged, rejected, and losing the career you'd worked hard for. So you denied your real feelings for that person to everyone, sometimes even to yourself. You said you continued to deny it even after it was too late to say, and you were left with nothing but a devastated heart."

Tommy was confused and nervous by the man's words. Why would a con man be talking about confessing love and hiding feelings? Just who was this man? And what did he want?

"Karn Kritsanaphan, or 'Jimmy', was the name you told me. You said you regretted not saying the right things back in February this year; that evening after filming when he told you his feelings for you were more than just love for a friend or brother. At the time you'd laughed it off, telling him he was merely confused because of the characters you were playing, and they weren't his feelings but the character's. You tried to make his feelings seem obsolete, even though you too felt more than friendship for him. But even though you regretted that moment, you said you wouldn't change it as the timing wasn't right." The man leant back in his chair and adjusted his hat slightly. "Your true regret was that you continued to hide and reject both his and your own feelings even after the show you were filming had ended."