"Wish" and "if only"
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The past tense is sometimes used in English to refer to an ‘unreal' situation. So, although the tense is the past, we are usually talking about the present, e.g. in a Type 2 conditional sentence:

If an elephant and a mouse fell in love, they would have many problems.

Although fell is in the past tense, we are talking about a hypothetical situation that might exist now or at any time, but we are not referring to the past. We call this use the unreal past.

Other situations where this occurs are:

•   after other words and expressions like ‘if‘ (supposing, if only, what if);
•   after the verb ‘to wish‘;
•   after the expression ‘I'd rather..‘

Expressions like ‘if'

The following expressions can be used to introduce hypothetical situations:
- supposing, if only, what if. They are followed by a past tense to indicate that the condition they introduce is unreal:

These expressions can also introduce hypothetical situations in the past and then they are followed by the past perfect.

If only I hadn't kissed the frog (= I did and it was a mistake because he turned into a horrible prince, but I can't change it now.)
What if the elephant had trodden on the mouse? (She didn't, but we can imagine the result!)
Supposing I had given that man my money! (I didn't, so I've still got my money now.)

The verb to wish

The verb to wish is followed by an ‘unreal' past tense when we want to talk about situations in the present that we are not happy about but cannot change:

When we want to talk about situations in the past that we are not happy about or actions that we regret, we use the verb to wish followed by the past perfect: