네가 매일 조금씩 더 좋아지는 것 같아

The line, explained

This is the shy confession, the one that leaves a door open. Instead of 'I like you', the singer says 'I think I like you a little more every day', which is somehow both bolder and safer. The grammar that does the hedging is -는 것 같아, 'it seems like', and Koreans use it so often that learning it changes how you hear every conversation. It is the sound of someone being careful with their own feelings, and letting you watch them do it.

네가 is 'you' as the subject, pronounced 니가 in speech. Here it is you who are doing the growing-on-me, which is a sweet way to phrase it: not 'I like you more' but 'you become more likeable'. 매일 is every day. 조금씩 더 is a little phrase worth memorising: 조금 is a little, 씩 means 'each' or 'at a time', and 더 is more. 조금씩 더 is 'a little more each time', the pace of a feeling that is sneaking up on someone.

좋아지다 is 좋다, good, with -아지다, 'to become'. It means to get better, to improve, and also, when a person is the subject, to grow on you: 네가 좋아져, I'm starting to like you. The stem 좋아지 takes -는 because the action is ongoing, giving 좋아지는, and then 것 같아 follows. 것 means thing, 같다 means to be like, so the literal shape is 'it is like the thing of you growing on me'. Korean hears that as 'I think I'm coming to like you'.

The tense lives in the small modifier before 것. -는 것 같아 is for something happening now: 비가 오는 것 같아, I think it's raining. -(으)ㄴ 것 같아 is for something that already happened: 비가 온 것 같아, I think it rained. -(으)ㄹ 것 같아 is for the future: 비가 올 것 같아, I think it'll rain. The same 것 같아 ending covers all three, which is why it is everywhere; only the piece in front of it moves.

Say it like you are not sure you should: ne-ga mae-il jo-geum-ssik deo, then quickly, jo-a-ji-neun geot ga-ta. The hedge is in the speed. Now flip it and see how the mood changes with a single verb: 네가 매일 조금씩 더 멀어지는 것 같아, I feel like you're drifting a little further away every day. Same frame, same softness, a completely different song.